I 


Mr.  &  Mrs.  Horace  A.  Scott 

2208  North  Ross  Street 

Santa  Ana,  California  92706 


37  MAP  OF 

TIDEWATER  VIRGINIA 

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OLD  VIRGINIA 
AND   HER   NEIGHBOURS 


BY 


JOHN   FISKE 

19578 


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IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  I 


BOSTON   AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1897 

BY  JOHN  FISKE 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


F 


l 


To 
MY  OLD  FRIEND  AND  COMRADE 

JOHN  KNOWLES  PAINE 

COMPOSER   OF   ST.  PETEB,  OEDIPUS   TYRANNU8,  THE  "SPRING* 
AND  C  MINOR  SYMPHONIES,  AND  OTHER  NOBLE  WORKS 

31  bcDicate  tfiis  book 


"  Long  days  be  his,  and  each  as  lusty-sweet 

As  gracious  natures  find  his  song  to  be ; 
May  age  steal  on  with  softly-cadenced  feet 
Falling  in  music,  as  for  him  were  meet 

Whose  choicest  note  is  harsher-toned  than  be ! " 


PREFACE. 

IN  the  series  of  books  on  American  history, 
upon  which  I  have  for  many  years  been  engaged, 
the  present  volumes  come  between  "  The  Discov- 
ery of  America  "  and  "  The  Beginnings  of  New 
England."  The  opening  chapter,  with  its  brief 
sketch  of  the  work  done  by  Elizabeth's  great  sail- 
ors, takes  up  the  narrative  where  the  concluding 
chapter  of  "  The  Discovery  of  America  "  dropped 
it.  Then  the  story  of  Virginia,  starting  with  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  and  Rev.  Richard  Hakluyt,  is 
pursued  until  the  year  1753,  when  the  youthful 
George  Washington  sets  forth  upon  his  expedition 
to  warn  the  approaching  Frenchmen  from  any  fur- 
ther encroachment  upon  English  soil.  That  mo- 
ment marks  the  arrival  of  a  new  era,  when  a  book 
like  the  present  —  which  is  not  a  local  history  nor 
a  bundle  of  local  histories  —  can  no  longer  follow 
the  career  of  Virginia,  nor  of  the  southern  colo- 
nies, except  as  part  and  parcel  of  the  career  of  the 
American  people.  That  "continental  state  of 
things,"  which  was  distinctly  heralded  when  the 
war  of  the  Spanish  Succession  broke  out  during 
Nicholson's  rule  in  Virginia,  had  arrived  in  1753. 
To  treat  it  properly  requires  preliminary  consid- 
eration of  many  points  in  the  history  of  the  north- 


vi  PREFACE. 

ern  colonies,  and  it  is  accordingly  reserved  for  a 
future  work. 

It  will  be  observed  that  I  do  not  call  the  present 
work  a  "  History  of  the  Southern  Colonies."  Its 
contents  would  not  justify  such  a  title,  inasmuch 
as  its  scope  and  purpose  are  different  from  what 
such  a  title  would  imply.  My  aim  is  to  follow 
the  main  stream  of  causation  from  the  time  of 
Raleigh  to  the  time  of  Dinwiddie,  from  its  sources 
down  to  its  absorption  into  a  mightier  stream. 
At  first  our  attention  is  fixed  upon  Raleigh's  Vir- 
ginia, which  extends  from  Florida  to  Canada,  Eng- 
land thrusting  herself  in  between  Spain  and  France. 
With  the  charter  of  1609  (see  below,  vol.  i.  p. 
145)  Virginia  is  practically  severed  from  North 
Virginia,  which  presently  takes  on  the  names  of 
New  England  and  New  Netherland,  and  receives 
colonies  of  Puritans  and  Dutchmen,  with  which 
this  book  is  not  concerned. 

From  the  territory  of  Virginia  thus  cut  down, 
further  slices  are  carved  from  time  to  time ;  first 
Maryland  in  1632,  then  Carolina  in  1663,  then 
Georgia  in  1732,  almost  at  the  end  of  our  narra- 
tive. Colonies  thus  arise  which  present  a  few  or 
many  different  social  aspects  from  those  of  Old 
Virginia ;  and  while  our  attention  is  still  centred 
upon  the  original  commonwealth  as  both  histori- 
cally most  important  and  in  personal  detail  most 
interesting,  at  the  same  time  the  younger  common- 


PREFACE.  vii 

wealths  claim  a  share  in  the  story.  A  compara- 
tive survey  of  the  social  features  in  which  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Maryland  differed 
from  one  another,  and  from  Virginia,  is  a  great 
help  to  the  right  understanding  of  all  four  com- 
monwealths. To  Maryland  I  find  that  I  have 
given  107  pages,  while  the  Carolinas,  whose  his- 
tory begins  practically  a  half  century  later,  receive 
67  pages ;  a  mere  mention  of  the  beginnings  of 
Georgia  is  all  that  suits  the  perspective  of  the  pre- 
sent story.  The  further  development  of  these 
southern  communities  will,  it  is  hoped,  receive  at- 
tention in  a  later  work. 

As  ,to  the  colonies  founded  in  what  was  once 
known  as  North  Virginia,  I  have  sketched  a  por- 
tion of  the  story  in  "  The  Beginnings  of  New 
England,"  ending  with  the  accession  of  William 
and  Mary.  The  remainder  of  it  will  form  the 
subject  of  my  next  work,  already  in  preparation, 
entitled  "  The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  in 
America ; "  which  will  comprise  a  sketch  of  the 
early  history  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Dela- 
ware, and  Pennsylvania,  with  a  discussion  of  the 
contributions  to  American  life  which  may  be  traced 
to  the  Dutchr  German,  Protestant  French,  and 
Scotch-Irish  migrations  previous  to  the  War  of 
Independence. 

To  complete  the  picture  of  the  early  times  and  to 
"  make  connections  "  with  "  The  American  Revo- 


viii  PREFACE. 

lution,"  still  another  work  will  be  needed,  which 
shall  resume  the  story  of  New  England  at  the  acces- 
sion of  William  ai\d  Mary.  With  that  story  the 
romantic  fortunes  of  New  France  are  inseparably 
implicated,  and  in  the  course  of  its  development 
one  colony  after  another  is  brought  in  until  from 
the  country  of  the  Wabenaki  to  that  of  the  Chero- 
kees  the  whole  of  English  America  is  involved  in 
the  mightiest  and  most  fateful  military  struggle 
which  the  eighteenth  century  witnessed.  The 
end  of  that  conflict  finds  thirteen  colonies  nearly 
ripe  for  independence  and  union. 

The  present  work  was  begun  in  1882,  and  its 
topics  have  been  treated  in  several  courses  of  lec- 
tures at  the  Washington  University  in  St.  Louis, 
and  elsewhere.  In  1895  I  gave  a  course  of  twelve 
such  lectures,  especially  prepared  for  the  occasion, 
at  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston.  But  the  book 
cannot  properly  be  said  to  be  "  based  upon  "  lec- 
tures ;  the  book  was  primary  and  the  lectures  sec- 
ondary. 

The  amount  of  time  spent  in  giving  lectures  and 
in  writing  a  schoolbook  of  American  history  has 
greatly  delayed  the  appearance  of  this  book.  It 
is  more  than  five  years  since  "  The  Discovery  of 
America  "  was  published ;  I  hope  that  "  The  Dutch 
and  Quaker  Colonies  "  will  appear  after  a  much 
shorter  interval. 

CAMBRIDGE,  October  10,  1897. 


CONTENTS. 

VOLUME  I. 
CHAPTER  L 

T 1 1 K   SEA  KINGS. 

FAOB 

Tercentenary  of  the  Discovery  of  America,  1792    ...  1 

The  Abbe"  Raynal  and  his  book 2 

Was  the  Discovery  of  America  a  blessing   or  a  curse  to 

mankind  ? 3 

The  Abbe"  Genty's  opinion 4 

A  cheering  item  of  therapeutics      ......  4 

Spanish  methods  of  colonization  contrasted  with  English    .  5 
Spanish  conquerors  value  America  for  its  supply  of  precious 

metals       ..........  6 

Aim  of  Columbus  was  to  acquire  the  means  for  driving  the 

Turks  from  Europe       .......  7 

But  Spain  used  American  treasure  not  so  much  against  Turks 

as  against  Protestants      .......  8 

Vast  quantities  of  treasure  taken  from  America  by  Spain  .  9 
Nations  are  made  wealthy  not  by  inflation  but  by  produc- 
tion    9 

Deepest  significance  of  the  discovery  of  America  ;  it  opened 
up  a  fresh  soil  in  which  to  plant  the  strongest  type  of 

European  civilization    .......  10 

America  first  excited  interest  in  England  as  the  storehouse 

of  Spanish  treasure  ........  11 

After  the  Cabot  voyages  England  paid  little  attention  to 

America 12 

Save  for  an  occasional  visit  to  the  Newfoundland  fisheries      .  13 

Earliest  English  reference  to  America         ....  13 

Founding  of  the  Muscovy  Company         .....  14 

Richard  Eden  and  his  books 15 


x  CONTENTS. 

John  Hawkins  and  the  African  slave  trade      .         .         .15,  16 
Hawkins  visits  the  French  colony  in  Florida       ...         17 
Facts  which  seem  to  show  that  thirst  is  the  mother  of  inven- 
tion   18 

Massacre  of  Hugnenots  in  Florida  ;  escape  of  the  painter  Le 

Moyne  ..........         18 

Hawkins  goes  on  another  voyage  and  takes  with  him  young 

Francis  Drake  ........     19 

The  affair  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua  and  the  journey  of  David 

Ingram          .........         20 

Growing  hostility  to  Spain  in  England    .         .         .         .         .21 

Size  and  strength  of  Elizabeth's  England  .         .        .21,  22 

How  the  sea  became  England's  field  of  war    .        .         .        .22 

Loose  ideas  of  international  law 23 

Some  bold  advice  to  Queen  Elizabeth 23 

The  sea  kings  were  not  buccaneers  .....  24 
Why  Drake  carried  the  war  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  .  .  25 
How  Drake  stood  upon  a  peak  in  Darien  ....  26 
Glorious  voyage  of  the  Golden  Hind  .  .  .  .  26,  27 

Drake  is  knighted  by  the  Queen 27 

The  Golden  Hind's  cabin  is  made  a  banquet-room  .  .  28 
Voyage  of  the  half-brothers,  Gilbert  and  Raleigh  .  .  28 
Gilbert  is  shipwrecked,  and  his  patent  is  granted  to  Raleigh  29 
Raleigh's  plan  for  founding  a  Protestant  state  in  America 

may  have  been  suggested  to  him  by  Coligny  .  .  .30 
Elizabeth  promises  self-government  to  colonists  in  America  31 
Amidas  and  Barlow  visit  Pamlico  Sound  ....  31 
An  Ollendorfian  conversation  between  white  men  and  red  men  32 
The  Queen's  suggestion  that  the  new  country  be  called  in 

honour  of  herself  Virginia 32 

Raleigh  is  knighted,  and  sends  a  second  expedition  under 

Ralph  Lane 32 

Who  concludes  that  Chesapeake  Bay  would  be  better  than 

Pamlico  Sound          ........     33 

Lane  and  his  party  on  the  brink  of  starvation  are  rescued  by 

Sir  Francis  Drake         .......        33 

Thomas  Cavendish  follows  Drake's  example  and  circumnavi- 
gates the  earth          ........     34 

How  Drake  singed  the  beard  of  Philip  II.  ...         34 

Raleigh  sends  another  party  under  John  White      .         .         .35 
The  accident  which  turned  White  from  Chesapeake  Bay  to 

Roanoke  Island     ........         35 

Defeat  of  the  Invincible  Armada 36,  37 


CONTENTS.  xi 

The  deathblow  at  Cadiz 88 

The  mystery  about  White's  colony 28,  39 

Significance  of  the  defeat  of  the  Armada        .        .        .       39,  40 

CHAPTER  II. 

A   DISCOURSE  OF   WESTERN   PLANTINO. 

Some  peculiarities  of  sixteenth  century  maps  .  .  .41 
How  Richard  Hakluyt's  career  was  determined  .  .  42 

Strange  adventures  of  a  manuscript 43 

Hakluyt's  reasons  for  wishing  to  see  English  colonies  planted 

in  America    .........        44 

English  trade  with  the  Netherlands 45 

Hakluyt  thinks  that  America  will  presently  afford  as  good  a 
market  as  the  Netherlands  ......        46 

Notion  that  England  was  getting  to  be  over-peopled      .        .    46 
The  change  from  tillage  to  pasturage         ....  46,  47 

What  Sir  Thomas  More  thought  about  it        .        .        .        .  .  47 

Growth  of  pauperism  during  the  Tudor  period  ...         48 
Development  of  English  commercial  and  naval  marine  .    49 

Opposition  to  Hakluyt's  schemes         .....         49 

The  Queen's  penuriousness     .......    50 

Beginnings  of  joint-stock  companies   .....        51 

Raleigh's  difficulties 52,53 

Christopher  Newport  captures  the  great  Spanish  carrack  .  53 
Raleigh  visits  Guiana  and  explores  the  Orinoco  River  .  .  54 
Ambrosial  nights  at  the  Mermaid  Tavern  ....  54 

Accession  of  James  1 55 

Henry,  Earl  of  Southampton,   Shakespeare's   friend,  sends 

Bartholomew  Gosnold  on  an  expedition.       ...        55 
Gosnold  reaches  Buzzard's  Bay  in  what  he  calls  North  Vir- 
ginia, and  is  followed  by   Martin  Pring  and  George 

Weymonth 55,56 

Performance  of  "  Eastward  Ho,"  a  comedy  by  Chapman  and 

Marston        .........        56 

Extracts  from  this  comedy      ......       57-59 

Report  of  the  Spanish  ambassador  Zuniga  to  Philip  III.    .        59 
First  charter  to  the  Virginia  Company,  1606  ....     60 

"  Supposed  Sea  of  Verrazano  "  covering  the  larger  part  of  the 

area  now  known  as  the  United  States          ...         61 
Northern  and  southern  limits  of  Virginia       .        .         .         .62 

The  twin  joint-stock  companies  and  the  three  zones  .         .  62,  63 


xii  CONTENTS. 

The  three  zones  in  American  history 63 

The  kind  of  government  designed  for  the  two  colonies  .  64 
Some  of  the  persons  chiefly  interested  in  the  first  colony 

known  as  the  London  Company  ....  65-67 
Some  of  the  persons  chiefly  interested  in  the  second  colony 

known  as  the  Plymouth  Company  ....  67,  68 
Some  other  eminent  persons  who  were  interested  in  western 

planting 68-70 

Expedition  of  the  Plymouth  Company  and  disastrous  failure 

of  the  Popham  Colony 70,  71 

The  London  Company  gets  its  expedition  ready  a  little 
before  Christmas  and  supplies  it  with  a  list  of  instruc- 
tions   71, 72 

Where  to  choose  a  site  for  a  town  .....  72 
Precautions  against  a  surprise  by  the  Spaniards  .  .  .73 
Colonists  must  try  to  find  the  Pacific  Ocean  ...  73 
And  must  not  offend  the  natives  or  put^  much  trust  in  them  74 
The  death  and  sickness  of  white  men  must  be  concealed  from 

the  Indians 75 

It  will  be  well  to  beware  of  woodland  coverts,  avoid  malaria, 

and  guard  against  desertion  .....  75 
The  town  should  be  carefully  built  with  regular  streets  75,  76 
Colonists  must  not  send  home  any  discouraging  news  .  .  76 

What  Spain  thought  about  all  this 76,  77 

Christopher  Newport  starts  with  a  little  fleet  for  Virginia  .  77 
A  poet  laureate's  farewell  blessing 77-79 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATAN8. 

One  of  Newport's  passengers  was  Captain  John  Smith,  a 

young  man  whose  career  had  been  full  of  adventure  .  80 
Many  persons  have  expressed  doubts  as  to  Smith's  veracity, 

but  without  good  reason  ......  81 

Early  life  of  John  Smith 82 

His  adventures  on  the  Mediterranean  ....  83 

And  in  Transylvania        ........  84 

How  he  slew  and  beheaded  three  Turks     ....  85 

For  which  Prince  Sigismund  granted  him  a  coat-of-arms 

which  was  duly  entered  in  the  Heralds'  College  .  .  86 
The  incident  was  first  told  not  by  Smith  but  by  Sigismund's 

secretary  Farnese 87 


CONTENTS.  xni 

Smith  tells  us  much  about  himself,  but  is  not  a  braggart       .    88 
How  he  was  sold  into  slavery  beyond  the  Sea  of  Azov  and 

cruelly  treated 88,89 

How  he  slew  his  master  and  escaped  through  Russia  and 

Poland 89,  90 

The  smoke  of  controversy 90 

In  the  course  of  Newport's  tedious  voyage  Smith  is  accused 

of  plotting  mutiny  and  kept  in  irons  ....  91 
Arrival  of  the  colonists  in  Chesapeake  Bay,  May  13,  1607  92 
Founding  of  Jamestown ;  Wingfield  chosen  president  .  .  93 
Smith  is  set  free  and  goes  with  Newport  to  explore  the  James 

River 93,94 

The  Powhatan  tribe,  confederacy,  and  head  war-chief   .         .     94 
How  danger  may  lurk  in  long  grass   .....        95 

Smith  is  acquitted  of  all  charges  and  takes  his  seat  with  the 

council     ..........     96 

Newport  sails  for  England,  June  22,  1607  ....        96 

George  Percy's  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the  colonists  from 

fever  and  famine      ........     97 

Quarrels  break  out  in  which  President  Wingfield  is  deposed 

and  John  Ratcliffe  chosen  in  his  place         ...        99 
Execution  of  a  member  of  the  council  for  mutiny  .         .         .  100 
Smith  goes  up  the  Chickahominy  River  and  is  captured  by 

Opekankano         ........       101 

Who  takes  him  about  the  country  and  finally  brings  him  to 

Werowocomoco,  January,  1608 102 

The  Indians  are  about  to  kill  him,  but  he  is  rescued  by  the 

chief's  daughter,  Pocahontas  .....  103 
Recent  attempts  to  discredit  the  story  ....  103-108 
Flimsiness  of  these  attempts  ......  104 

George  Percy's  pamphlet 105 

The  printed  text  of  the  "  True  Relation  "  is  incomplete     105,  106 
Reason  why  the  Pocahontas  incident  was  omitted  in  the 

"  True  Relation " 106,107 

There  is  no  incongruity  between  the  "  True  Relation  "  and 

the  "  General  History  "  except  this  omission    .         .         .  107 
But  this  omission  creates  a  gap  in  the  "  True  Relation,"  and 
the  account  in  the  "  General  History  "  is  the  more  in- 
trinsically probable      .......        108 

The  rescue  was  in  strict  accordance  with  Indian  usage  .         .  109 
The  ensuing  ceremonies  indicate  that  the  rescue  was  an  ordi- 
nary case  of  adoption 110 

The  Powhatan  afterward  proclaimed  Smith  a  tribal  chief     .  Ill 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

The  rescue  of  Smith  by  Pocahontas  was  an  event  of  real  his- 
torical importance Ill 

Captain  Newport  returns  with  the  First  Supply,  Jan.  8,  1608  112 
Ratcliffe  is  deposed  and  Smith  chosen  president     .         .         .113 
Arrival  of  the  Second  Supply,  September,  1608          .         .       113 
Queer  instructions  brought  by  Captain  Newport  from  the 

London  Company     ........  113 

How  Smith  and  Captain  Newport  went  up  to  Werowocomoco, 

and  crowned  The  Powhatan         .         .         .        .         .114 

How  the  Indian  girls  danced  at  Werowocomoco     .         .  114,  115 

Accuracy  of  Smith's  descriptions 116 

How  Newport  tried  in  vain  to  search  for  a  salt  sea  behind  the 

Blue  Kidge 116 

Anas  Todkill's  complaint    .         .         .         .         .         .         .117 

Smith's  map  of  Virginia 118 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   STARVING   TIME. 

How  pnns  were  made  on  Captain  Newport's  name  .  .  119 
Great  importance  of  the  Indian  alliance  ....  120 

Gentlemen  as  pioneers 121 

All  is  not  gold  that  glitters 122 

Smith's  attempts  to  make  glass  and  soap  ....  123 
The  Company  is  disappointed  at  not  making  more  money  .  124 
Tale-bearers  and  their  complaints  against  Smith  .  .  124 
Smith's  "  Rude  Answer  "  to  the  Company  ....  125 

Says  he  cannot  prevent  quarrels 125 

And  the  Company's  instructions  have  not  been  wise  .  .  126 
From  infant  industries  too  much  must  not  be  expected  while 

the  colonists  are  suffering  for  want  of  food  .  .  127 
And  while  peculation  and  intrigue  are  rife  and  we  are  in  sore 

need  of  useful  workmen  .......  128 

Smith  anticipates  trouble  from  the  Indians,  whose  character 

is  well  described  by  Hakluyt  .....  129 

What  Smith  dreaded 130 

How  the  red  men's  views  of  the  situation  were  changed  .  131 
Smith's  voyage  to  Werowocomoco  ......  132 

His  parley  with  The  Powhatan 133 

A  game  of  bluff 134 

The  corn  is  brought    .         .......       135 

Suspicions  of  treachery  ........  136 


CONTENTS.  xv 

A  wily  orator 137 

Pocahontas  reveals  the  plot    .......  138 

Smith's  message  to  The  Powhatan      ....        138, 139 

How  Smith  visited  the  Pamunkey  village  and  brought  Ope- 

kankano  to  terms     .......    139, 140 

How  Smith  appeared  to  the  Indians  in  the  light  of  a  worker 

of  miracles  .........       141 

What  our  chronicler  calls  "  a  pretty  accident  "...  141 
How  the  first  years  of  Old  Virginia  were  an  experiment  in 

communism  ........       142 

Smith  declares  "  He  that  will  not  work  shall  not  eat,"  but 
the  summer's  work  is  interrupted  by  unbidden  mess- 
mates in  the  shape  of  rats 143 

Arrival  of  young  Samuel  Argall  with  news  from  London  143,  144 
Second  Charter  of  the  London  Company,  1609  .  .  .  144 

The  council  in  London 145 

The  local  government  in  Virginia  is  entirely  changed  and 

Thomas,  Lord  Delaware,  is  appointed  governor  for  life     146 
A  new  expedition  is  organized  for  Virginia,  but  still  with  a 

communistic  programme       .         .         .         .         .       147,  148 
How  the  good  ship  Sea  Venture  was  wrecked  upon  the  Ber- 
mudas       149 

How  this  incident  was  used  by  Shakespeare  in  The  Tempest  150 
Gates  and  Somers  build  pinnaces  and  sail  for  Jamestown, 

May,  1610 151 

The  Third  Supply  had  arrived  in  August,  1609  .  .  .151 
And  Smith  had  returned  to  England  in  October  .  .  152 

Lord  Delaware  became  alarmed  and  sailed  for  Virginia  .  152 
Meanwhile  the  sufferings  of  the  colony  had  been  horrible  .  153 
Of  the  500  persons  Gates  and  Somers  found  only  60  survivors, 

and  it  was  decided  that  Virginia  must  be  abandoned       .  154 
Dismantling  of  Jamestown  and  departure  of  the  colony     154,  155 
But  the  timely  arrival  of  Lord  Delaware  in  Hampton  Roads 
prevented  the  dire  disaster 155 


CHAPTER  V. 

BEGINNINGS   OF  A   COMMONWEALTH. 

To  the  first  English  settlers  in  America  a  supply  of  Indian 
corn  was  of  vital  consequence,  as  illustrated  at  James- 
town and  Plymouth 156 

Alliance  with  the  Powhatan  confederacy  was  of  the  first  im- 
portance to  the  infant  colony 157 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

Smith  -wag  a  natural  leader  of  men 157 

With  much  nobility  of  nature      .         .         .         .         .         .       158 

Aud  but  for  him  the  colony  would  probably  have  perished   .  159 
Characteristic  features  of  Lord  Delaware's  administration        160 
Death  of  Somers  and  cruise  of  Argall  in  1610     .         .         .       161 
Kind  of  craftsmen  desired  for  Virginia  ....  162 

Sir  Thomas  Dale  comes  to  govern  Virginia  in  the  capacity  of 

High  Marshal 163 

A  Draconian  code  of  laws       .......  164 

Cruel  punishments.      ........       165 

How  communism  worked  in  practice 166 

How  Dale  abolished  communism         .         .        .        .        .167 

And  founded  the  "  City  of  Henricus  "    .        .        .        .    167,  168 

How  Captain  Argall  seized  Pocahontas       ....       168 

Her  marriage  with  John  Rolf  e        ......  169 

How  Captain  Argall  extinguished  the  Jesuit  settlement  at 

Mount  Desert  and  burned  Port  Royal  ....       170 

But  left  the  Dutch  at  New  Amsterdam  with  a  warning         .  171 
How  Pocahontas,  "La  Belle  Sauvage,"  visited  London  and 

was  entertained  there  like  a  princess       .         .         .   171, 172 
Her  last  interview  with  Captain  Smith       .         .         .        .172 

Her  sudden  death  at  Gravesend      ......  173 

How  Tomocomo  tried  to  take  a  census  of  the  English        .       173 
How  the  English  in  Virginia  began  to  cultivate  tobacco  in 

spite  of  King  James  and  his  Counterblast       .        .        .  174 
Dialogue  between  Silenus  and  Kawasha     ....       175 

Effects  of  tobacco  culture  upon  the  young  colony  .         .   176,  177 
The  London  Company's  Third  Charter,  1612      .         .       177,  178 

How  money  was  raised  by  lotteries 178 

How  this  new  remodelling  of  the  Company  made  it  an  im- 
portant force  in  politics 179 

Middleton's  speech  in  opposition  to  the  charter      .         .         .  180 
Richard  Martin  in  the  course  of  a  brilliant  speech  forgets 

himself  and  has  to  apologize         .....       181 
How  factions  began  to  be  developed  within  the  London  Com- 
pany          182 

Sudden  death  of  Lord  Delaware 183 

Quarrel  between  Lord  Rich  and  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  resulting 
in  the  election  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  as  treasurer  of  the 
Company  .........  184 

Sir  George  Yeardley  is  appointed  governor  of  Virginia  while 

Argall  is  knighted        .......       185 

How  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  introduced  into  Virginia  the  first 

American  legislature,  1619      ......  186 


CONTENTS.  xvil 

How  this  legislative  assembly,  like  those  afterwards  consti- 
tuted in  America,  were  formed  after  the  type  of  the 
old  English  county  court  ......  187 

How  negro  slaves  were  first  introduced  into  Virginia,  1619  .  188 

How  cargoes  of  spinsters  were  sent  out  by  the  Company  in 

quest  of  husbands  .  .  .  .  .  .  .189 

The  great  Indian  massacre  of  1622        ....   189,  190 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   SEMINARY   OF   SEDITION. 

Summary  review  of  the  founding  of  Virginia         .         .   191-194 
Bitter  hostility  of  Spain  to  the  enterprise  ....       194 

Gondomar  and  the  Spanish  match  ......  195 

Gondomar's  advice  to  the  king    ......       196 

How  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  kept  twelve  years  in  prison        197 
But  was  then  released  and  sent  on  an  expedition  to  Guiana      198 
The  king's  base  treachery      .......  199 

Judicial  murder  of  Raleigh          ......       200 

How  the  king  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  Company's 

election  of  treasurer  in  1620    ......  201 

How  the  king's  emissaries  listened  to  the  reading  of  the 

charter 202 

Withdrawal  of  Sandys  and  election  of  Southampton      .         .  203 
Life  and  character  of  Nicholas  Ferrar        .         .         .        203-205 
His  monastic  home  at  Little  Gidding     .....  205 
How   disputes  rose    high  in  the   Company's  quarter  ses- 
sions     206,207 

How  the  House  of  Commons  rebuked  the  king      .        .    207,  208 
How  Nathaniel  Butler  was  accused  of  robbery  and  screened 

himself  by  writing  a  pamphlet  abusing  the  Company        208 
Some  of  his  charges  and  how  they  were  answered  by  Vir- 
ginia settlers         ........      209 

As  to  malaria          .         .        .        .  .        .        .        .  209 

As  to  wetting  one's  feet      .......      210 

As  to  dying  under  hedges       .......  211 

As  to  the  houses  and  their  situations          .         .        .        211,  212 
Object  of  the  charges      ........  212 

Virginia  assembly  denies  the  allegations  ....        213 

The  Lord  Treasurer  demands  that  Ferrar  shall  answer  the 

charges    ..........  214 

A  cogent  answer  is  returned       .....        214,  215 


xviii  CONTENTS. 

Vain  attempts  to  corrupt  Ferrar 215,  216 

How  the  wolf  was  set  to  investigate  the  dogs    .         .         .        216 
The  Virginia  assembly  makes  "  A  Tragical  Declaration"     .  217 
On  the  attorney-general's  advice  a  quo  warranto  is  served  217,  218 
How  the  Company  appealed  to  Parliament,  and  the  king  re- 
fused to  allow  the  appeal        .....   217,  218 

The  attorney-general's  irresistible  logic      ....       219 

Lord  Strafford's  glee       ........  220 

How  Nicholas  Ferrar  had  the  records  copied      .         .       221,  222 
The  history  of  a  manuscript   .         .         .         .         .         .221, 222 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   KINGDOM   OF   VIRGINIA. 

A  retrospect 223 

Tidewater  Virginia      ........       224 

A  receding  frontier 224,  225 

The  plantations 225 

Boroughs  and  burgesses  .......  226 

Boroughs  and  hundreds       ......        227,  228 

Houses,  slaves,  indentured  servants,  and  Indians    .         .         .  229 
Virginia  agriculture  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.     .         .         .       230 

Increasing  cultivation  of  tobacco    .         .         .         .         .         .231 

Literature ;  how  George  Sandys  entreated  the  Muses  with 

success          .........      232 

Provisions  for  higher  education 233 

Project  for  a  university  in  the  city  of  Henricus  cut  short  by 

the  Indian  massacre      .......       234 

Puritans  and  liberal  churchmen      ......  235 

How  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  learned  a  lesson 
from  the  fate  of  its  predecessor,  the  London  Company 

for  Virginia 236,237 

Death  of  James  I.  .........  238 

Effect  upon  Virginia  of  the  downfall  of  the  Company       238-240 
The  virus  of  liberty     ......         .  240 

How  Charles  I.   came   to  recognize   the   assembly  of  Vir- 
ginia            241-243 

Some  account  of  the  first  American  legislature  .         .       243,  244 
How  Edward  Sharpless  had  part  of  one  ear  cut  off         .         .  245 

The  case  of  Captain  John  Martin 245 

How  the  assembly  provided  for  the  education  of  Indians       .  246 
And  for  the  punishment  of  drunkards         ....      246 


CONTENTS.  xix 

And  against  extravagance  in  dress  .....  246 
How  flirting  was  threatened  with  the  whipping-post  .  247 
And  scandalous  gossip  with  the  pillory  ....  247 
How  the  minister's  salary  was  assured  him  .  .  .  247 
How  he  was  warned  against  too  much  drinking  and  card- 
playing  248 

Penalties  for  Sabhath-breaking 248 

Inn-keepers  forbidden  to  adulterate  liquors  or  to  charge  too 

much  per  gallon  or  glass          ......  249 

A  statute  against  forestalling      .....       249,  250 

How  Charles  I.  called  the  new  colony  "Our  kingdom  of 

Virginia" 251 

How  the  convivial  governor  Dr.  Pott  was  tried  for  stealing 
cattle,  but  pardoned  for  the  sake  of  his  medical  ser- 
vices   253 

Growth  of  Virginia  from  1624  to  1642   ....  253,254 

CHAPTER  VUL 

THE   MARYLAND  PALATINATE. 

The  Irish  village  of  Baltimore 255 

Early  career  of  George  Calvert,  first  Lord  Baltimore      255,  256 
How  James  I.  granted  him  a  palatinate  in  Newfoundland      .  256 

Origin  of  palatinates 256,  257 

Changes  in  English  palatinates 258,  259 

The  bishopric  of  Durham 259,  260 

Durham  and  Avalon       ........  260 

How  Lord  Baltimore  fared  in  his  colony  of  Avalon  in  New- 
foundland   261 

His  letter  to  the  king 262 

How  he  visited  Virginia  but  was  not  cordially  received     263,  264 
How  a  part  of  Virginia  was  granted  to  him  arid  received  the 

name  of  Maryland   ........  235 

Fate  of  the  Avalon  charter 266 

Character  of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore 267 

Early  career  of  Cecilius  Calvert,  second  Lord  Baltimore    .       268 
How  the  founding  of  Maryland  introduced  into  America  a 

new  type  of  colonial  government  ....  269,  270 
Ecclesiastical  powers  of  the  Lord  Proprietor  .  .  .  271 
Religious  toleration  in  Maryland  ......  272 

The  first  settlement  at  St.  Mary's 273 

Relations  with  the  Indians 274 


xx  CONTENTS. 

Prosperity  of  the  settlement 275 

Comparison  of  the  palatinate  government  of  Maryland  with 

that  of  the  bishopric  of  Durham      ....    275-285 

The  constitution  of  Durham ;  the  receiver-general     .         .       276 
Lord  lieutenant  and  high  sheriff     ......  276 

Chancellor  of  temporalities          ......       277 

The  ancient  halmote  and  the  seneschal  ....  277 

The  bishop's  council 278 

Durham  not  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons  until 

after  1660 278 

Limitations  upon  Durham  autonomy  ....       279 

The  palatinate  type  in  America      ......  280 

Similarities  between  Durham  and  Maryland  ;  the  governor      281 
Secretary ;  surveyor-general ;  muster  master-general ;  sher- 
iffs         282 

The  courts 282,  283 

The  primary  assembly         .......       283 

Question  as  to  the  initiative  in  legislation       ....  284 

The  representative  assembly 284, 285 

Lord  Baltimore's  power  more  absolute  than  that  of  any  king 

of  England  save  perhaps  Henry  VIII.     ....  285 

CHAPTER  IX. 

LEAH   AND   RACHEL. 

William  Claiborne  and  his  projects 286 

Kent  Island  occupied  by  Claiborne 287 

Conflicting  grants 288 

Star  Chamber  decision  and  Claiborne's  resistance       .        .      289 
Lord  Baltimore's  instructions         ......  290 

The  Virginia  council  supports  Claiborne     .        .         .       290,  291 
Complications  with  the  Indians      .....   291,  292 

Reprisals  and  skirmishes     .......       293 

Affairs  in  Virginia;    complaints    against    Governor    Har- 
vey   293,  294 

Rage  of  Virginia  against  Maryland     ....       294,  295 

How  Rev.  Anthony  Panton  called  Mr.  Secretary  Kemp  a 

jackanapes       .....         ....  295 

Indignation  meeting  at  the  house  of  William  Warren         .       296 

Arrest  of  the  principal  speakers 296 

Scene  in  the  council  room  ......       296,  297 

How  Sir  John  Harvey  was  thrust  out  of  the  government  .      297 


CONTENTS.  xxi 

How  'K'ing  Charles  sent  him  back  to  Virginia  .  .  .  298 

Downfall  of  Harvey . 299 

George  Evelin  sent  to  Kent  Island  .....  299 
Kent  Island  seized  by  Leonard  Calvert  ....  300 
The  Lords  of  Trade  decide  against  Claiborne  .  .  .  301 

Puritans  in  Virginia 301,  302 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  of  1631 303 

Puritan  ministers  sent  from  New  England  to  Virginia  .  303 

The  new  Act  of  Uniformity,  1643 304 

Expulsion  of  the  New  England  ministers   ....      304 

Indian  massacre  of  1644          .......  305 

Conflicting  views  of  theodicy      ......      306 

Invasion  of  Maryland  by  Claiborne  and  Ingle  .  .  306-308 
Expulsion  of  Claiborne  and  Ingle  from  Maryland  .  .  308 
Lord  Baltimore  appoints  William  Stone  as  governor  .  .  308 

Toleration  Act  of  1649 309-311 

Migration  of  Puritans  from  Virginia  to  Maryland  .  .  312 

Designs  of  the  Puritans 313 

Reluctant  submission  of  Virginia  to  Cromwell  .  .  .  314 
Claiborne  and  Bennett  undertake  to  settle  the  affairs  of 

Maryland 315 

Renewal  of  the  troubles 316 

The  Puritan  Assembly  and  its  notion  of  a  toleration  act  .  316 
Civil  war  in  Maryland ;  battle  of  the  Severn,  1655  .  .  317 
Lord  Baltimore  is  sustained  by  Cromwell  and  peace  reigns 

once  more    .........      318 

MAPS. 

Tidewater  Virginia,  from  a  sketch  by  the  author  .  Frontispiece 
Michael  Lok's  Map,  1582,/rowi  HalduyCs  Voyages  to  America  60 
The  Palatinate  of  Maryland,  from  a  sketch  by  the  author .  .  274 


OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HEE  NEIGHBOURS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   SEA   KINGS. 

WHEN  one  thinks  of  the  resounding  chorus  of 
gratulations  with  which  the  four  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  Discovery  of  America  was  lately 
heralded  to  a  listening  world,  it  is  curious  and 
instructive  to  notice  the  sort  of  comment  which 
that  great  event  called  forth  upon  the  occasion  of 
its  third  centenary,  while  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  was  as  yet  a  novel  and  ill-appreciated 
fact.  In  America  very  little  fuss  was  made.  Rail- 
roads were  as  yet  unknown,  and  the  era  of  world's 
fairs  had  not  begun.  Of  local  celebrations  there 
were  two ;  one  held  in  New  York,  the  other  in 
Boston  ;  and  as  in  1892,  so  in  1792,  New 

__      i       •   n  11          s-\i        o  i         Tercente- 

York  followed  the   Old  Style  date,  the  nary  of  the 

-.  IT>  Discovery  of 

twelfth  or  October,  while  Boston  under-  America, 

1792. 

took  to  correct  the  date  for  New  Style. 
This  work  was  discreditably  bungled,  however,  and 
the  twenty-third  of  October  was  selected  instead 
of  the  true  date,  the  twenty-first.  In  New  York 
the  affair  was  conducted  by  the  newly  founded  polit- 
ical society  named  for  the  Delaware  chieftain  Tam- 
many, in  Boston  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical 


2      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Society,  whose  founder,  Dr.  Jeremy  Belknap,  deliv- 
ered a  thoughtful  and  scholarly  address  upon  the 
occasion.  Both  commemorations  of  the  day  were 
very  quiet  and  modest.1 

In  Europe  little  heed  was  paid  to  America  and 
its  discovery,  except  in  France,  which,  after  taking 
part  in  our  Revolutionary  War,  was  at  length 
embarking  upon  its  own  Revolution,  so  different 
in  its  character  and  fortunes.  Without  knowing 
much  about  America,  the  Frenchmen  of  that  day 
were  fond  of  using  it  to  point  a  moral  and  adorn 
Abb<sRay-  a  tale.  In  1770  the  famous  Abbe  Ray- 
naL  nal  had  published  his  "  Philosophical 

and  Political  History  of  the  Establishments  and 
Commerce  of  the  Europeans  in  the  Two  Indies," 
a  book  in  ten  volumes,  which  for  a  time  enjoyed 
immense  popularity.  Probably  not  less  than  one 
third  of  it  was  written  by  Diderot,  and  more  than 
a  dozen  other  writers  contributed  to  its  pages, 
while  the  abbe,  in  editing  these  various  chapters 
and  adding  more  from  his  own  hand,  showed  him- 
self blissfully  ignorant  of  the  need  for  any  such 
thing  as  critical  judgment  in  writing  history.  In 
an  indescribably  airy  and  superficial  manner  the 
narrative  flits  over  the  whole  vast  field  of  the  in- 
tercourse of  Europeans  with  the  outlying  parts  of 
the  earth  discovered  since  the  days  of  Columbus 
and  Gama ;  and  at  length,  in  the  last  chapter  of 
the  last  volume,  we  are  confronted  with  the  ques- 
tion, What  is  all  this  worth  ?  Our  author  answers 
confidently,  Nothing !  worse  than  nothing !  the 
world  would  have  been  much  better  off  if  America 

1  E.  E.  Hale,  in  Proc.  Amer.  Antiq.  Soc.  N.  S.  viii.  190-212. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  3 

had  never  been  discovered  and  the  ocean  route  to 
Asia  had  remained  unknown  ! 

This  opinion  seems  to  have  been  a  favourite 
hobby  with  the  worthy  Raynal ;  for  in  1787,  in 
view  of  the  approaching  tercentenary,  we  find  him 
proposing  to  the  Academy  of  Lyons  the  offer  of  a 
prize  of  fifty  louis  for  the  best  essay  upon  the 
question  whether  the  discovery  of  Amer-  Waa  the  dfa. 
ica  had  been  a  blessing  or  a  curse  to  ^rica'a 
mankind.  It  was  furthermore  suggested  j^curstfto 
that  the  essay  should  discuss  the  most  mankind? 
practicable  methods  of  increasing  the  benefits  and 
diminishing  the  ills  that  had  flowed  and  continued 
to  flow  from  that  memorable  event.  The  an- 
nouncement of  the  question  aroused  considerable 
interest,  and  a  few  essays  were  written,  but  the 
prize  seems  never  to  have  been  awarded.  One  of 
these  essays  was  by  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux, 
who  had  served  in  America  as  major-general  in  the 
army  of  Count  Rochambeau.  The  accomplished 
author  maintains,  chiefly  on  economic  grounds, 
that  the  discovery  has  been  beneficial  to  mankind ; 
in  one  place,  mindful  of  the  triumph  of  the  Amer- 
ican cause  in  the  grand  march  upon  Yorktown 
wherein  he  had  himself  taken  part,  he  exclaims, 
"  O  land  of  Washington  and  Franklin,  of  Hancock 
and  Adams,  who  could  ever  wish  thee  non-existent 
for  them  and  for  us  ?  "  To  this  Baron  Grimm l 
replied,  "  Perhaps  he  will  wish  it  who  reflects 
that  the  independence  of  the  United  States  has 
cost  France  nearly  two  thousand  million  francs, 
and  is  hastening  in  Europe  a  revolutionary  out- 

1  Grimm  et  Diderot,  Correspondence  litttraire,  torn.  xv.  p.  325. 


4     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

break  which  had  better  be  postponed  or  averted." 

To  most  of  these  philosophers  no  doubt  Chastellux 

seemed  far  too  much  of  an  optimist,  and  the  writer 

who  best  expressed  their  sentiments  was 

Abb6  Genty.  .  _x 

the  Abbe  Genty,  who  published  at  Or- 
leans, in  1787,  an  elaborate  essay,  in  two  tiny  vol- 
umes, entitled  "  The  Influence  of  the  Discovery  of 
America  upon  the  Happiness  of  the  Human  Race." 
Genty  has  no  difficulty  in  reaching  the  conclusion 
that  the  influence  has  been  chiefly  for  the  bad. 
Think  what  a  slaughter  there  had  been  of  innocent 
and  high-minded  red  men  by  brutal  and  ruthless 
whites!  for  the  real  horrors  described  by  Las 
Casas  were  viewed  a  century  ago  in  the  light  of 
Rousseau's  droll  notions  as  to  the  exalted  virtues 
of  the  noble  savage.  Think,  too,  how  most  of  the 
great  European  wars  since  the  Peace  of  Westpha- 
lia had  grown  out  of  quarrels  about  colonial  em- 
pire !  Clearly  Columbus  had  come  with  a  sword, 
not  with  an  olive  branch,  and  had  but  opened  a 
new  chapter  in  the  long  Iliad  of  human  woe. 
Against  such  undeniable  evils,  what  benefits  could 
be  alleged  except  the  extension  of  commerce,  and 
that,  says  Genty,  means  merely  the  multiplication 
of  human  wants,  which  is  not  in  itself  a  thing  to 
be  desired.1  One  unqualified  benefit,  however, 
Genty  and  all  the  other  writers  freely  admit ; 

the  introduction  of  quinine  into  Europe 

Quinine.  n.  r 

and  its  use  in  averting  fevers.  I  hat 
item  of  therapeutics  is  the  one  cheery  note  in  the 
mournful  chorus  of  disparagement,  so  long  as  our 

1  Genty,  L'influence  de  la  dtcouverte  de  I'Amfrique,  etc.,  2*  e"d., 
Orleans,  1789,  torn.  ii.  pp.  148-150. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  5 

attention  is  confined  to  the  past.  In  the  future, 
perhaps,  better  things  might  be  hoped  for.  Along 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America  a  narrow 
fringe  of  English-speaking  colonies  had  lately 
established  their  political  independence  and  suc- 
ceeded in  setting  on  foot  a  federal  government 
under  the  presidency  of  George  Washington.  The 
success  of  this  enterprise  might  put  a  new  face 
upon  things  and  ultimately  show  that  after  all  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  was  a  blessing  to 
mankind.1  So  says  the  Abbe  Genty  in  his  curi- 
ous little  book,  which  even  to-day  is  well  worth 
reading. 

If  now,  after  the  lapse  of  another  century,  we 
pause  to  ask  the  question  why  the  world  was  so 
much  more  interested  in  the  Western  hemisphere 
in  1892  than  in  1792,  we  may  fairly  say  that  it 
is  because  of  the  constructive  work,  political  and 
social,  that  has  been  done  here  in  the  interval  by 
men  who  speak  English.  Surely,  if  there  were 
nothing  to  show  but  the  sort  of  work  in  coloniza- 
tion and  nation-making  that  character- 

i     o  •  i      A  •  i        •        /-\t  i    -r.  r      Spanish  and 

ized  opamsn  America  under  its  Old  Ke-  English 

•  i  i-ii  11  c          America. 

gime,  there  would  be  small  reason  for 
celebrating  the  completion  of  another  century  of 
such  performance.  During  the  present  century, 
indeed,  various  parts  of  Spanish  America  have 
begun  to  take  on  a  fresh  political  and  social  life, 
so  that  in  the  future  much  may  be  hoped  for 
them.  But  the  ideas  and  methods  which  have 
guided  this  revival  have  been  largely  the  ideas 
and  methods  of  English-speaking  people,  however 
1  Id.  p.  192  ff. 


6      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

imperfectty  conceived  and  reproduced.  The  whole 
story  of  this  western  hemisphere  since  Genty  wrote 
gives  added  point  to  his  opinion  that  its  value  to 
mankind  would  be  determined  chiefly  by  what  the 
people  of  the  United  States  were  likely  to  do. 

The  smile  with  which  one  regards  the  world- 
historic  importance  accorded  to  the  discovery  of 
quinine  is  an  index  of  the  feeling  that  there  are 
broad  ways  and  narrow  ways  of  dealing  with  such 
questions.  To  one  looking  through  a  glass  of 
small  calibre  a  great  historical  problem  may  re- 
solve itself  into  a  question  of  food  and  drugs. 
Your  anti-tobacco  fanatic  might  contend  that  civ- 
ilized men  would  have  been  much  better  off  had 
they  never  become  acquainted  with  the  Indian 
weed.  An  economist  might  more  reasonably  point 
to  potatoes  and  maize  —  to  say  nothing  of  many 
other  products  peculiar  to  the  New  World  —  as  an 
acquisition  of  which  the  value  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. To  reckon  the  importance  of  a  new 
piece  of  territory  from  a  survey  of  its  material 
productions  is  of  course  the  first  and  most  natural 
method.  The  Spanish  conquerors  valued  America 
Precious  f°r  &s  supply  of  precious  metals  and  set 
little  store  by  other  things  in  compari- 
son. But  for  the  discovery  of  gold  mines  in  1496 
the  Spanish  colony  founded  by  Columbus  in  His- 
paniola  would  probably  have  been  abandoned. 
That  was  but  the  first  step  in  the  finding  of  gold 
and  silver  in  enormous  quantities,  and  thenceforth 
for  a  long  time  the  Spanish  crown  regarded  its 
transatlantic  territories  as  an  inexhaustible  mine 
of  wealth.  But  the  value  of  money  to  mankind 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  1 

depends  upon  the  uses  to  which  it  is  put ;  and  here 
it  is  worth  our  while  to  notice  the  chief  use  to 
which  Spain  applied  her  American  treasure  during 
the  sixteenth  century. 

The  relief  of  the  church  from  threatening  dan- 
gers was  in  those  days  the  noblest  and  most  sacred 
function  of  wealth.  When  Columbus  AimBOf 
aimed  his  prow  westward  from  the  Cana-  c 
ries,  in  quest  of  the  treasures  of  Asia,  its  precious 
stones,  its  silk-stuffs,  its  rich  shawls  and  rugs,  its 
corals  and  dye-woods,  its  aromatic  spices,  he  ex- 
pected to  acquire  vast  wealth  for  the  sovereigns 
who  employed  him  and  no  mean  fortune  for 
himself.  In  all  negotiations  he  insisted  upon  a 
good  round  percentage,  and  could  no  more  be  in- 
duced to  budge  from  his  price  than  the  old  Roman 
Sibyl  with  her  books.  Of  petty  self-seeking  and 
avarice  there  was  probably  no  more  in  this  than  in 
commercial  transactions  generally.  The  wealth 
thus  sought  by  Columbus  was  not  so  much  an  end 
as  a  means.  His  spirit  was  that  of  a  Crusader, 
and  his  aim  was  not  to  discover  a  New  World  (an 
idea  which  seems  never  once  to  have  entered  his 
head),  but  to  acquire  the  means  for  driving  the 
Turk  from  Europe  and  setting  free  the  Holy 
Sepulchre.  Had  he  been  told  upon  his  melan- 
choly death-bed  that  instead  of  finding  a  quick 
route  to  Cathay  he  had  only  discovered  a  New 
World,  it  would  probably  have  added  fresh  bitter- 
ness to  death. 

But  if  this  lofty  and  ill-understood  enthusiast 
failed  in  his  search  for  the  treasures  of  Cathay,  it 
was  at  all  events  not  long  before  Cortes  and 


8      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Pizarro  succeeded  in  finding  the  treasures  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  and  the  crusading  scheme  of 
Columbus  descended  as  a  kind  of  legacy  to  the 
successors  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  mag- 
nanimous but  sometimes  misguided  Charles,  the 
sombre  and  terrible  Philip.  It  remained  a  crusad- 
ing scheme,  but,  no  longer  patterned  after  that  of 
Godfrey  and  Tancred,  it  imitated  the  mad  folly 
which  had  once  extinguished  in  southern  Gaul  the 
most  promising  civilization  of  its  age.  Instead 
of  a  Spanish  crusade  which  might  have  expelled 
the  most  worthless  and  dangerous  of  barbarians 
from  eastern  Europe,  it  became  a  Spanish  crusade 
against  everything  in  the  shape  of  political  and 
religious  freedom,  whether  at  home  or 

Spain  and  '  .  .  o 

the  Protest-    abroad.      Ine    year    in    which    bpanish 

ant  revolt. 

eyes  first  beheld  the  carved  serpents  on 
Central  American  temples  was  the  year  in  which 
Martin  Luther  nailed  his  defiance  to  the  church 
door  at  Wittenberg.  From  the  outworn  crust  of 
mediae valism  the  modern  spirit  of  individual  free- 
dom and  individual  responsibility  was  emerging, 
and  for  ninety  years  all  Europe  was  rent  with  the 
convulsions  that  ensued.  In  the  doubtful  struggle 
Spain  engaged  herself  further  and  further,  until 
by  1570  she  had  begun  to  sacrifice  to  it  all  her 
energies.  Whence  did  Philip  II.  get  the  sinews 
of  war  with  which  he  supported  Alva  and  Farnese, 
and  built  the  Armada  called  Invincible  ?  Largely 
from  America,  partly  also  from  the  East  Indies, 
since  Portugal  and  her  colonies  were  seized  by 
Philip  in  1580.  Thus  were  the  first-fruits  of  the 
heroic  age  of  discovery,  both  to  east  and  to  west 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  9 

of  Borgia's  meridian,  devoted  to  the  service  of  the 
church  with  a  vengeance,  as  one  might  say,  a  lurid 
vengeance  withal  and  ruthless.  By  the  year  1609, 
when  Spain  sullenly  retired,  baffled  and  brow- 
beaten, from  the  Dutch  Netherlands,  she  had 
taken  from  America  more  gold  and  silver  than 
would  to-day  be  represented  by  five  thousand  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  most  of  this  huge  treasure  she 
had  employed  in  maintaining  the  gibbet  for  politi- 
cal reformers  and  the  stake  for  heretics.  In  view  of 
this  grewsome  fact,  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams 
has  lately  asked  the  question  whether  the  discov- 
ery of  America  was  not,  after  all,  for  at  least  a 
century,  fraught  with  more  evil  than  benefit  to 
mankind.  One  certainly  cannot  help  wondering 
what  might  have  been  the  immediate  result  had 
such  an  immense  revenue  been  at  the  disposal  of 
William  and  Elizabeth  rather  than  Philip. 

Such  questions  are  after  all  not  so  simple  as 
they  may  seem.     It  is  not  altogether  clear  that 
such  a  reversal  of  the  conditions  from  the  start 
would  have  been  of  unmixed  benefit  to  Nation8 
the  English  and  Dutch.     After  the  five  £eea^not 
thousand  millions  had  been  scattered  to  ^ ^^ 
the  winds,  altering  the  purchasing  power  ductlon- 
of  money  in  all  directions,  it  was  Spain  that  was 
impoverished  while  her  adversaries  were  growing 
rich  and  strong.     A  century  of  such  unproductive 
expenditure  went  far  toward  completing   the  in- 
dustrial ruin  of  Spain,  already  begun  in  the  last 
Moorish  wars,  and  afterward  consummated  by  the 
expulsion  of  the  Moriscos.    The  Spanish  discovery 
of  America  abundantly  illustrates  the  truths  that  if 


10     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

gold  were  to  become  as  plentiful  as  iron  it  would 
be  worth  much  less  than  iron,  and  that  it  is  not 
inflation  but  production  that  makes  a  nation 
wealthy.  In  so  far  as  the  discovery  of  America 
turned  men's  minds  from  steady  industry  to  gold- 
hunting,  it  was  a  dangerous  source  of  weakness 
to  Spain;  and  it  was  probably  just  as  well  for 
England  that  the  work  of  Cortes  and  Pizarro  was 
not  done  for  her. 

But  the  great  historic  fact,  most  conspicuous 
among  the  consequences  of  the  discovery  of 
America,  is  the  fact  that  colonial  empire,  for  Eng- 
land and  for  Holland,  grew  directly  out  of  the 
long  war  in  which  Spain  used  American  and  East 
Indian  treasure  with  which  to  subdue  the  English 
and  Dutch  peoples  and  to  suppress  the  principles 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  which  they  repre- 
sented. The  Dutch  tore  away  from  Spain  the 
best  part  of  her  East  Indian  empire,  and  the  glori- 
ous Elizabethan  sea  kings,  who  began  the  work  of 
crippling  Philip  II.  in  America,  led  the 

Deepest  Big-  ..          ,  ,        -T-\TI  i  • 

nificanceof    way  directly  to  the  English  colonization 

the  discov-  J  .    .  mi 

eryof          ot  Virginia.     Ihus  we  are  introduced  to 

America.  . 

the  most  important  aspect  of  the  discov- 
ery of  America.  It  opened  up  a  fresh  soil,  enor- 
mous in  extent  and  capacity,  for  the  possession  of 
which  the  lower  and  higher  types  of  European 
civilization  and  social  polity  were  to  struggle.  In 
this  new  arena  the  maritime  peoples  of  western 
Europe  fought  for  supremacy;  and  the  conquest 
of  so  vast  a  field  has  given  to  the  ideas  of  the  vic- 
torious people,  and  to  their  type  of  social  polity, 
an  unprecedented  opportunity  for  growth  and  de- 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  11 

velopment.  Sundry  sturdy  European  ideas,  trans- 
planted into  this  western  soil,  have  triumphed 
over  all  competitors  and  thriven  so  mightily  as  to 
react  upon  all  parts  of  the  Old  World,  some  more, 
some  less,  and  thus  to  modify  the  whole  course  of 
civilization.  This  is  the  deepest  significance  of 
the  discovery  of  America ;  and  a  due  appreciation 
of  it  gives  to  our  history  from  its  earliest  stages 
an  epic  grandeur,  as  the  successive  situations 
unfold  themselves  and  events  with  unmistakable 
emphasis  record  their  moral.  In  the  conflict  of 
Titans  that  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  question  whether  it  should  be  the 
world  of  Calderon  or  the  world  of  Shakespeare 
that  was  to  gain  indefinite  power  of  future  ex- 
pansion was  a  question  of  incalculable  importance 
to  mankind. 

The  beginnings  of  the  history  of  English-speak- 
ing America  are  thus  to  be  sought  in  the  history 
of  the  antagonism  between  Spain  and  England 
that  grew  out  of  the  circumstances  of  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation.  It  was  as  the  storehouse  of  the 
enemy's  treasure  and  the  chief  source  of  his  sup- 
plies that  America  first  excited  real  interest  among 
the  English  people. 

English  ships  had  indeed  crossed  the  Atlantic 
many  years  before  this  warfare  broke  out.     The 
example  set  by  Columbus  had  been  promptly  fol- 
lowed by  John  Cabot  and  his  young  son  Sebastian, 
in  the  two  memorable  voyages  of  1497  voyages  of 
and  1498,  but  the  interest  aroused  by  theCabot8- 
those  voyages  was  very  short-lived.     In  later  days 
it  suited  the  convenience  of  England  to  cite  them 


12      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

in  support  of  her  claim  to  priority  in  the  discovery 
of  the  continent  of  North  America;  but  many 
years  elapsed  before  the  existence  of  any  such 
continent  was  distinctly  known  and  before  Eng- 
land cared  to  put  forth  any  such  claim.  All  that 
contemporaries  could  see  was  that  the  Cabots  had 
sailed  westward  in  search  of  the  boundless  treas- 
ures of  Cathay,  and  had  come  home  empty-handed 
without  finding  any  of  the  cities  described  by 
Marco  Polo  or  meeting  any  civilized  men.  So 
little  work  was  found  for  Sebastian  Cabot  that  he 
passed  into  the  service  of  Spain,  and  turned  his 
attention  to  voyages  in  the  South  Atlantic.  Such 
scanty  record  was  kept  of  the  voyages  of  1497 
and  1498  that  we  cannot  surely  tell  what  land  the 
Cabots  first  saw ;  whether  it  was  the  bleak  coast 
of  northern  Labrador  or  some  point  as  far  south 
as  Cape  Breton  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute.  The 
case  was  almost  the  same  as  with  the  voyage  of 
Pinzon  and  Vespucius,  whose  ships  were  off  Cape 
Honduras  within  a  day  or  two  after  Cabot's  north- 
ern landfall,  and  who,  after  a  sojourn  at  Tampico, 
passed  between  Cuba  and  Florida  at  the  end  of 
April,  1498.  In  the  one  case,  as  in  the  other, 
the  expeditions  sank  into  obscurity  because  they 
found  no  gold. 

The  triumphant  return  of  Gama  from  Hindu- 
stan, in  the  summer  of  1499,  turned  all  men's  eyes 
to  southern  routes,  and  little  heed  was  paid  to  the 
wild  inhospitable  shores  visited  by  John  Cabot 
and  his  son.  The  sole  exception  to  the  general 
neglect  was  the  case  of  the  fisheries  on  the  banks 
of  Newfoundland.  From  the  beginning  of  the 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  13 

sixteenth  century  European  vessels  came  almost 
yearly  to  catch  fish  there,  but  at   first 

V,        ,.  i       T     i  •        TheNew- 

Jiingiishrnen   took   little   or   no   part   in  foundiand 

i  •       p  111  i  fisheries. 

this,  for  they  had  long  been  wont  to  get 
their  fish  in  the  waters  about  Iceland,  and  it  took 
them  some  years  to  make  the  change.  On  the 
bright  August  day  of  1527  when  Master  John  Rut 
sailed  into  the  bay  of  St.  John,  in  Newfoundland, 
he  found  two  Portuguese,  one  Breton,  and  eleven 
Norman  ships  fishing  there.  Basques  also  came 
frequently  to  the  spot.  Down  to  that  time  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  thought  of  the  western  shores 
of  the  Atlantic  entered  the  heads  of  Englishmen 
more  frequently  than  the  thought  of  the  Antarctic 
continent,  discovered  sixty  years  ago,  enters  the 
heads  of  men  in  Boston  to-day. 

The  lack  of  general  interest  in  maritime  dis- 
covery is  shown  by  the  fact  that  down  to  1576,  so 
far  as  we  can  make  out,  only  twelve  books  upon 
the  subject  had  been  published  in  England,  and 
these  were  in  great  part  translations  of  works 
published  in  other  countries.  The  earliest  indis- 
putable occurrence  of  the  name  America  ^^^ 
in  any  printed  English  document  is  in  ^"Sto*" 
a  play  called  "A  new  interlude  and  a  America- 
mery  of  the  nature  of  the  iiii  elements,"  which  was 
probably  published  in  15 19.1  About  the  same 
time  there  appeared  from  an  Antwerp  press  a 
small  book  entitled  "  Of  the  newe  landes  and  of 
y6  people  found  by  the  messengers  of  the  Kynge 
of  Portugal ;  "  in  it  occurs  the  name  Armenica, 
which  is  probably  a  misprint  for  America,  since 
1  Winsor,  Narr.  and  Grit.  Hist.  iii.  19. 


14      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  account  of  it  is  evidently  taken  from  the 
account  which  Vespucius  gives  of  the  natives  of 
Brazil,  and  in  its  earliest  use  the  name  America 
was  practically  equivalent  to  Brazil.  With  the 
exception  of  a  dim  allusion  to  Columbus  in  Sebas- 
tian Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fools,"  these  are  the  only 
references  to  the  New  World  that  have  been  found 
in  English  literature  previous  to  1553. 

The  youthful  Edward  VI. ,  who  died  that  year, 
had  succeeded  in  recalling  Sebastian  Cabot  from 
Spain,  and  under  the  leadership  of  that  navigator 
was  formed  the  joint-stock  company  quaintly  enti- 
tled, "  The  Mysterie  and  Companie  of  the  Mer- 
chant Adventurers  for  the  Discoverie  of  Regions, 
Dominions,  Islands,  and  Places  unknown."  It  was 
the  first  of  that  series  of  sagacious  and 

The  Mus-  .  .  . P  . 

covy  com-     daring  combinations  of  capital  of  which 

pany. 

the  East  India  Company  has  been  the 
most  famous.  It  was  afterwards  more  briefly 
known  as  the  Muscovy  Company.  Under  its  aus- 
pices, on  the  21st  of  May,  1553,  an  English  fleet  of 
exploration,  under  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  set  sail 
down  the  Thames  while  the  cheers  of  thronging 
citizens  were  borne  through  the  windows  of  the 
palace  at  Greenwich  to  the  ears  of  the  sick  young 
king.  The  ill-fated  expedition,  seeking  a  northeast- 
erly passage  to  Cathay,  was  wrecked  on  the  coast 
of  Lapland,  and  only  one  of  the  ships  got  home,  but 
the  interest  in  maritime  adventure  grew  rapidly. 
A  few  days  before  Edward's  death,  Richard  Eden 
published  his  "  Treatyse  of  the  Newe  India, ' 
which  was  largely  devoted  to  the  discoveries  in 
America.  Two  years  later,  in  1555,  Eden  fol- 


THE  SEA   KINGS.  15 

lowed  this  by  his  "  Decades  of  the  Newe  World," 
in  great  part  a  version  of  Peter  Martyr's  Latin. 
This  delightful  book  for  the  first  time  made  the 
English  people  acquainted  with  the  re-  Rjchar(i 
suits  of  maritime  discovery  in  all  quar-  Eden- 
ters  since  the  great  voyage  of  1492.  It  enjoyed  a 
wide  popularity  ;  poets  and  dramatists  of  the  next 
generation  read  it  in  their  boyhood  and  found 
their  horizon  wondrously  enlarged.  In  its  pages 
doubtless  Shakespeare  found  the  name  of  that 
Patagonian  deity  Setebos,  which  Caliban  twice  lets 
fall  from  his  grotesque  lips.  Three  years  after 
Eden's  second  book  saw  the  light  the  long  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  began,  and  with  it  the  antag- 
onism, destined  year  by  year  to  wax  more  violent 
and  deadly,  between  England  and  Spain. 

Meanwhile  English  mariners  had  already  taken 
a  hand  in  the  African  slave-trade,  which  since 
1442  had  been  monopolized  by  the  Portuguese.  It 
is  always  difficult  to  say  with  entire  confidence 
just  who  first  began  anything,  but  William  Haw- 
kins, an  enterprising  merchant  of  Plym-  John  Haw. 
outh,  made  a  voyage  on  the  Guinea  coast  ^i^ tbe 
as  early  as  1530,  or  earlier,  and  carried  Blave-trade- 
away  a  few  slaves.  It  was  his  son,  the  famous 
Captain  John  Hawkins,  who  became  the  real 
founder  of  the  English  trade  in  slaves.  In  this 
capacity  Americans  have  little  reason  to  remember 
his  name  with  pleasure,  yet  it  would  be  a  grave 
mistake  to  visit  him  with  unmeasured  condemna- 
tion. Few  sturdier  defenders  of  political  freedom 
for  white  men  have  ever  existed,  and  among  the 
valiant  sea  kings  who  laid  the  foundations  of 


16      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

England's  maritime  empire  he  was  one  of  the 
foremost.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Queen  Eliza- 
beth regarded  the  opening  of  the  slave-trade  as 
an  achievement  worthy  of  honourable  commemora- 
tion, for  when  she  made  Hawkins  a  knight  she 
gave  him  for  a  crest  the  device  of  a  negro's  head 
and  bust  with  the  arms  tightly  pinioned,  or,  in  the 
language  of  heraldry,  "  a  demi-Moor  proper  bound 
with  a  cord."  Public  opinion  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  was  neatly  expressed  by  Captain  Lok, 
who  declared  that  the  negroes  were  "  a  people  of 
beastly  living,  without  God,  law,  religion,  or  com- 
monwealth," 1  so  that  he  deemed  himself  their  ben- 
efactor in  carrying  them  off  to  a  Christian  land 
where  their  bodies  might  be  decently  clothed  and 
their  souls  made  fit  for  heaven.  Exactly  three 
centuries  after  Captain  Lok,  in  the  decade  preced- 
ing our  Civil  War,  I  used  to  hear  the  very  same 
defence  of  slavery  preached  in  a  Connecticut  pul- 
pit ;  so  that  perhaps  we  are  not  entitled  to  frown 
too  severely  upon  Elizabeth's  mariners.  It  takes 
men  a  weary  while  to  learn  the  wickedness  of  any- 
thing that  puts  gold  in  their  purses. 

It  was  in  1562  that  John  Hawkins  made  his  first 
famous  expedition  to  the  coast  of  Guinea,  where  he 
took  three  hundred  slaves  and  carried  them  over 
to  San  Domingo.  It  was  illicit  traffic,  of  course, 
but  the  Spanish  planters  and  miners  were  too 
much  in  need  of  cheap  labour  to  scrutinize  too 
jealously  the  source  from  which  it  was  offered. 
The  Englishman  found  no  difficulty  in  selling  his 
negroes,  and  sailed  for  home  with  his  three  ships 

1  Froude,  History  of  England,  viii.  439. 


THE  SEA  KINGS  17 

loaded  with  sugar  and  ginger,  hides  and  pearls. 
The  profits  were  large,  and  in  1564  the  experiment 
was  repeated  with  still  greater  success.  On  the 
way  home,  early  in  August,  1565,  Hawkins  stopped 
at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's  River  in  Florida, 
and  found  there  a  woebegone  company  Hawkini 
of  starving  Frenchmen.  They  were  the  a^  Laudon- 

.   .  niere. 

party  of  Rene  de  Laudonmere,  awaiting 
the  return  of  their  chief  commander,  Jean  Ribaut, 
from  France.  Their  presence  on  that  shore  was 
the  first  feeble  expression  of  the  master  thought 
that  in  due  course  of  time  originated  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  the  author  of  that  master 
thought  was  the  great  Admiral  Coligny.  The 
Huguenot  wars  had  lately  broken  out  in  France, 
but  already  that  far-sighted  statesman  had  seen  the 
commercial  and  military  advantages  to  be  gained 
by  founding  a  Protestant  state  in  America.  After 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  upon  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
he  had  sent  Jean  Ribaut  to  Florida,  and  the  little 
colony  was  now  suffering  the  frightful  hardships 
that  were  the  lot  of  most  new-comers  into  the 
American  wilderness.  Hawkins  treated  these  poor 
Frenchmen  with  great  kindness,  and  his  visit  with 
them  was  pleasant.  He  has  left  an  interesting 
account  of  the  communal  house  of  the  Indians  in 
the  neighbourhood,  an  immense  barn-like  frame 
house,  with  stanchions  and  rafters  of  untrimmed 
logs,  and  a  roof  thatched  with  palmetto  leaves. 
Hawkins  liked  the  flavour  of  Indian  meal,  and  in 
his  descriptions  of  the  ways  of  cooking  it  one  easily 
recognizes  both  "hasty  pudding"  and  hoe-cake. 
He  thought  it  would  have  been  more  prudent  in 


18      OLD    VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  Frenchmen  if  they  had  raised  corn  for  them- 
selves instead  of  stealing  it  from  the  Indians  and 
arousing  a  dangerous  hostility.  For  liquid  refresh- 
ment they  had  been  thrown  upon  their  own  re- 
sources, and  had  contrived  to  make  a  thousand 
gallons  or  more  of  claret  from  the  native  grapes  of 
the  country.  A  letter  of  John  Winthrop  reminds 
us  that  the  Puritan  settlers  of  Boston  in  their  first 
summer  also  made  wine  of  wild  grapes,1  and  accord- 
ing to  Adam  of  Bremen  the  same  thing  was  done 
by  the  Northmen  in  Vinland  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury,2 showing  that  in  one  age  and  clime  as  well  as 
in  another  thirst  is  the  mother  of  invention. 

As  the  Frenchmen  were  on  the  verge  of  despair, 
Hawkins  left  them  one  of  his  ships  in  which  to 
return  to  France,  but  he  had  scarcely  departed 
when  the  long  expected  Ribaut  arrived  with  rein- 
forcements, and  soon  after  him  came  that  terrible 
Spaniard,  Menendez,  who  butchered  the  whole 
Massacre  of  company,  men,  women,  and  children, 
theater =  about  70°  Huguenots  in  all.  Some  half 
LeMome.  dozen  escaped  and  were  lucky  enough 
to  get  picked  up  by  a  friendly  ship  and  carried  to 
England.  Among  them  was  the  painter  Le  Moine, 
who  became  a  friend  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and 
aroused  much  interest  with  his  drawings  of  Amer- 
ican beasts,  birds,  trees,  and  flowers.  The  story 
of  the  massacre  awakened  fierce  indignation.  Hos- 
tility to  Spain  was  rapidly  increasing  in  England, 
and  the  idea  of  Coligny  began  to  be  entertained 
by  a  few  sagacious  heads.  If  France  could  not 

1  Winsor,  Narr.  and  Crit.  Hist.  iii.  61. 

2  See  my  Discovery  of  America,  i.  209. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  19 

plant  a  Protestant  state  in  America,  perhaps  Eng- 
land could.  A  little  later  we  find  Le  Moiiie  con- 
sulted by  the  gifted  half-brothers,  Humphrey 
Gilbert  and  Walter  Raleigh. 

Meanwhile,  in  1567,  the  gallant  Hawkins  went 
on  an  eventful  voyage,  with  five  stout  ships,  one 
of  which  was  commanded  by  a  very  capable  and 
well  educated  young  man,  afterwards  and  until 
Nelson's  time  celebrated  as  the  greatest  Francig 
of  English  seamen.  Francis  Drake  was  Drake- 
a  native  of  Devonshire,  son  of  a  poor  clergyman 
who  had  been  molested  for  holding  Protestant 
opinions.  The  young  sea  king  had  already  gath- 
ered experience  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the 
Spanish  Main  ;  this  notable  voyage  taught  him  the 
same  kind  of  feeling  toward  Spaniards  that  Han- 
nibal cherished  toward  Romans.  After  the  usual 
traffic  among  the  islands  the  little  squadron  was 
driven  by  stress  of  weather  to  seek  shelter  in  the 
port  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  at  the  present  site  of 
Vera  Cruz.  There  was  no  force  there  fit  to  resist 
Hawkins,  and  it  is  droll  to  find  that  pious  hero, 
such  a  man  of  psalms  and  prayers,  pluming  him- 
self upon  his  virtue  in  not  seizing  some  Spanish 
ships  in  the  harbour  laden  with  what  we  should 
call  five  million  dollars'  worth  of  silver.  The  next 
day  a  fleet  of  thirteen  ships  from  Spain 

i  XT.  TLJ       1  •  U    The  affair  of 

arrived  upon  the  scene.  Hawkins  could  San  Juan  de 
perhaps  have  kept  them  from  entering 
the  harbour,  but  he  shrank  from  the  responsibility 
of  bringing  on  a  battle  in  time  of  peace  ;  the  queen 
might  disapprove  of  it.  So  Hawkins  parleyed 
with  the  Spaniards,  a  solemn  covenant  of  mutual 


20      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

forbearance  was  made  and  sworn  to,  and  he  let 
them  into  the  harbour.  But  the  orthodox  Catholic 
of  those  days  sometimes  entertained  peculiar  views 
about  keeping  faith  with  heretics.  Had  not  his 
Holiness  Alexander  VI.  given  all  this  New  World 
to  Spain?  Poachers  must  be  warned  off;  the 
Huguenots  had  learned  a  lesson  in  Florida,  and 
it  was  now  the  Englishmen's  turn.  So  Hawkins 
was  treacherously  attacked,  and  after  a  desperate 
combat,  in  which  fireships  were  used,  three  of  his 
vessels  were  destroyed.  The  other  two  got  out  to 
sea,  but  with  so  scanty  a  larder  that  the  crews 
were  soon  glad  to  eat  cats  and  dogs,  rats  and  mice, 
and  boiled  parrots.  It  became  necessary  to  set 
114  men  ashore  somewhere  to  the  north  of  Tam- 
pico.  Some  of  these  men  took  northeasterly  trails, 
and  mostly  perished  in  the  woods,  but  David 
Ingram  and  two  companions  actually  made  their 
way  across  the  continent  and  after  eleven  months 
were  picked  up  on  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  by  a 
friendly  French  vessel  and  taken  back  to  Europe. 
About  seventy,  led  by  Anthony  Goddard,  less  pru- 
dently marched  toward  the  city  of  Mexico,  and 
fell  into  the  clutches  of  the  Inquisition ;  three  were 
burned  at  the  stake  and  all  the  rest  were  cruelly 
flogged  and  sent  to  the  galleys  for  life.  When 
the  news  of  this  affair  reached  England  a  squadron 
of  Spanish  treasure-ships,  chased  into  the  Channel 
by  Huguenot  cruisers,  had  just  sought  refuge  in 
English  harbours,  and  the  queen  detained  them  in 
reprisal  for  the  injury  done  to  Hawkins. 

News  had  lately  arrived  of  the  bloody  vengeance 
wreaked   by  Dominique  de   Gourgues   upon  the 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  21 

Spaniards  in  Florida,  while  the  cruelties  of  Alva 
were  fast  goading  the  Netherlands  into  rebellion. 
Next  year,  1570,  on  a  fresh  May  morning,  the 
Papal  Bull  "  declaring  Elizabeth  deposed  and  her 
subjects  absolved  from  their  allegiance  was  found 
nailed  against  the  Bishop  of  London's  door,"  l  and 
when  the  rash  young  gentleman  who  had  Growing 
put  it  there  was  discovered  he  was  taken  g^^f  *° 
back  to  that  doorstep  and  quartered  En«lan(i- 
alive.  Two  years  later  came  the  Paris  Matins  on 
the  day  of  St.  Bartholomew,  and  the  English  am- 
bassador openly  gave  shelter  to  Huguenots  in  his 
house.  Elizabeth's  policy  leaned  more  and  more 
decidedly  toward  defiance  of  the  Catholic  powers 
until  it  culminated  in  alliance  with  the  revolted 
Netherlands  in  January,  1578.  Meanwhile  the 
interest  in  America  quickly  increased.  Those  were 
the  years  when  Martin  Frobisher  made  his  glorious 
voyages  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  soon  to  be  followed 
by  John  Davis.  Almost  yearly  Drake  crossed  the 
Atlantic  and  more  than  once  attacked  and  ravaged 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  revenge  for  the  treach- 
ery at  San  Juan  de  Ulua.  Books  and  pamphlets 
about  America  began  to  come  somewhat  frequently 
from  the  press. 

It  is  worth  our  while  here  to  pause  for  a  moment 
and  remark  upon   the   size  and  strength   of  the 
nation  that  was  so  soon  to  contend  sue-  gize  and 
cessfully  for  the    mastery   of  the   sea.  gSSgSiS 
There  is   something  so  dazzling  in  the  Eu8land- 
brilliancy  of   the    age   of   Queen  Bess,    it  is   so 
crowded  with  romantic  incidents,  it  fills  so  large  a 

1  Froude,  History  of  England,  x.  59. 


22      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

place  in  our  minds,  that  we  hardly  realize  how 
small  England  then  was  according  to  modern 
standards  of  measurement.  Two  centuries  earlier, 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  the  population  of 
England  had  reached  about  5,000,000,  when  the 
Black  Death  at  one  fell  swoop  destroyed  at  least 
half  the  number.  In  Elizabeth's  time  the  loss 
had  just  about  been  repaired.  Her  England  was 
therefore  slightly  less  populous,  and  it  was  surely 
far  less  wealthy,  than  either  New  York  or  Penn- 
sylvania in  1890.  The  Dutch  Netherlands  had 
perhaps  somewhat  fewer  people  than  England,  but 
surpassed  her  in  wealth.  These  two  allies  were 
pitted  against  the  greatest  military  power  that  had 
existed  in  Europe  since  the  days  of  Constantino 
the  Great.  To  many  the  struggle  seemed  hope- 
less. For  England  the  true  policy  was  limited  by 
circumstances.  She  could  send  troops  across  the 
Channel  to  help  the  Dutch  in  their  stubborn  re- 
sistance, but  to  try  to  land  a  force  in  the  Spanish 
peninsula  for  aggressive  warfare  would  be  sheer 
madness.  The  shores  of  America  and  the  open 
HOW  the  sea  sea  were  the  proper  field  of  war  for  Eng- 
!^d™efiSdg"  land.  Her  task  was  to  paralyze  the  giant 
by  cutting  off  his  supplies,  and  in  this 
there  was  hope  of  success,  for  no  defensive  fleet, 
however  large,  could  watch  all  Philip's  enormous 
possessions  at  once.  The  English  navy,  first  per- 
manently organized  under  Henry  VIII.,  grew 
rapidly  in  Elizabeth's  reign  under  the  direction  of 
her  incomparable  seamen ;  and  the  policy  she 
adopted  was  crowned  with  such  success  that  Philip 
TI.  lived  to  see  his  treasury  bankrupt. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  23 

This  policy  was  gradually  adopted  soon  after 
the  fight  at  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  and  long  before 
there  was  any  declaration  of  war.  The  extreme 
laxness  of  that  age,  in  respect  of  international 
law,  made  it  possible  for  such  things  to  go  on  to 
an  extent  that  now  seems  scarcely  com- 
prehensible. The  wholesale  massacre  of  ofinterna- 

-r-,  ,  .        -.-,,        •  -i  c  i  tional  law. 

frenchmen  in  Florida,  ior  example,  oc- 
curred at  a  time  of  profound  peace  between  France 
and  Spain,  and  reprisal  was  made,  not  by  the 
French  government  but  by  a  private  gentleman 
who  had  to  sell  his  ancestral  estate  to  raise  the 
money.  It  quite  suited  Elizabeth's  tortuous  policy, 
in  contending  against  formidable  odds,  to  be  able 
either  to  assume  or  to  disclaim  responsibility  for 
the  deeds  of  her  captains.  Those  brave  men  well 
understood  the  situation,  and  with  earnest  patriot- 
ism and  chivalrous  loyalty  not  only  accepted  it, 
but  even  urged  the  queen  to  be  allowed  to  serve 
her  interests  at  their  own  risk.  In  a  letter  handed 
to  her  in  November,  1577,  the  writer  begs  to  be 
allowed  to  destroy  all  Spanish  ships  caught  fishing 
on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  and  adds,  "  If  you 
will  let  us  first  do  this  we  will  next  take  g^  ^^^ 
the  West  Indies  from  Spain.  You  will  *<>™«»>eth. 
have  the  gold  and  silver  mines  and  the  profit  of 
the  soil.  You  will  be  monarch  of  the  seas  and  out 
of  danger  from  every  one.  I  will  do  it  if  you  will 
allow  me ;  only  you  must  resolve  and  not  delay  or 
dally  —  the  wings  of  man's  life  are  plumed  with 
the  feathers  of  death."  1  The  signature  to  this 
bold  letter  has  been  obliterated,  but  it  sounds  like 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  and  is  believed  to  be  his. 

1  Brown's  Genesis  of  the  United  States,  i.  9. 


24     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

In  connection  with  this  it  should  be  remembered 
that  neither  in  England  nor  elsewhere  at  that  time 
had  the  navy  become  fully  a  national  affair  as  at 
present.  It  was  to  a  considerable  extent  supported 
by  private  speculation,  and  as  occasion  required  a 
commercial  voyage  or  a  voyage  of  discovery  might 
be  suddenly  transformed  into  a  naval  campaign. 
A  flavour  of  buccaneering  pervades  nearly  all  the 
r^g  ^  maritime  operations  of  that  age  and  often 
™tgbu^c™  leads  modern  writers  to  misunderstand  or 
misjudge  them.  Thus  it  sometimes  hap- 
pens that  so  excellent  a  man  as  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
whose  fame  is  forever  a  priceless  possession  for 
English-speaking  people,  is  mentioned  in  popular 
books  as  a  mere  corsair,  a  kind  of  gentleman 
pirate.  Nothing  could  show  a  more  hopeless  con- 
fusion of  ideas.  In  a  later  generation  the  war- 
fare characteristic  of  the  Elizabethan  age  degen- 
erated into  piracy,  and  when  Spain,  fallen  from 
her  greatness,  became  a  prey  to  the  spoiler,  a 
swarm  of  buccaneers  infested  the  West  Indies 
and  added  another  hideous  chapter  to  the  lurid 
history  of  those  beautiful  islands.  They  were 
mere  robbers,  and  had  nothing  in  common  with 
the  Elizabethan  heroes  except  courage.  From  the 
deeds  of  Drake  and  Hawkins  to  the  deeds  of 
Henry  Morgan,  the  moral  distance  is  as  great  as 
from  slaying  your  antagonist  in  battle  to  murder- 
ing your  neighbour  for  his  purse. 

It  was  Drake  who  first  put  into  practice  the 
policy  of  weakening  Philip  II.  by  attacking  him  in 
America.  It  served  the  direct  purpose  of  destroy- 
ing the  sinews  of  war,  and  indirectly  it  neutral- 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  25 

ized  for  Europe  some  of  Spain's  naval  strength  by 
diverting  it  into  American  waters  for  self-defence. 
To  do  such  work  most  effectively  it  seemed  desir- 
able to  carry  the  warfare  into  the  Pacific 

.  .  Why  Drake 

Ocean.     The  circumstances  of  its  disco v-  can-fed  the 

.  .  war  into  the 

ery  had  made  Spanish  America  almost  Pacific 

'  Ocean. 

more  of  a  Pacific  than  an  Atlantic  power. 
The  discoverers  happened  to  approach  the  great 
double  continent  where  it  is  narrowest,  and  the 
hunt  for  precious  metals  soon  drew  them  to  the 
Cordilleras  and  their  western  slopes.  The  moun- 
tain region,  with  its  untold  treasures  of  gold  and 
silver,  from  New  Mexico  to  Bolivia,  became  theirs. 
In  acquiring  it  they  simply  stepped  into  the  place 
of  the  aboriginal  conquering  tribes,  and  carried  on 
their  work  of  conquest  to  completion.  The  new 
rulers  conducted  the  government  by  their  own 
Spanish  methods,  and  the  white  race  was  super- 
posed upon  a  more  or  less  dense  native  population. 
There  was  no  sort  of  likeness  to  colonies  planted 
by  England,  but  there  were  some  points  of  resem- 
blance to  the  position  of  the  English  in  recent 
times  as  a  ruling  race  in  Hindustan.  Such  was 
the  kind  of  empire  which  Spain  had  founded  in 
America.  Its  position,  chiefly  upon  the  Pacific 
coast,  rendered  it  secure  against  English  conquest, 
though  not  against  occasional  damaging  attacks. 
In  South  America,  where  it  reached  back  in  one  or 
two  remote  points  to  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  chief 
purpose  was  to  protect  the  approach  to  the  silver 
mines  of  Bolivia  by  the  open  route  of  the  river 
La  Plata.  It  was  this  military  need  that  was  met 
by  the  growth  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  the  settle- 


26      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ments  in  Paraguay,  guarding  the  entrance  and  the 
lower  reaches  of  the  great  silver  river. 

Soon  after  the  affair  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  Drake 
conceived  the  idea  of  striking  at  this  Spanish  do- 
main upon  its  unguarded  Pacific  side.    In 

Drake  upon     _,  r  _  0        „  .  1-1 

a  peak  in       1573,  after  marching  across  the  isthmus 

Darien.  '       .  &    . 

of  Darien,  the  English  mariner  stood 
upon  a  mountain  peak,  not  far  from  where  Bal- 
boa sixty  years  before  had  stood  and  looked  down 
upon  the  waste  of  waters  stretching  away  to  shores 
unvisited  and  under  stars  unknown.  And  as  he 
looked,  says  Camden,  "  vehemently  transported 
with  desire  to  navigate  that  sea,  he  fell  upon  his 
knees  and  implored  the  divine  assistance  that  he 
might  at  some  time  sail  thither  and  make  a  perfect 
discovery  of  the  same."  On  the  15th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1577,  Drake  set  sail  from  Plymouth,  on  this 
hardy  enterprise,  with  five  good  ships.  It  was  a 
curious  coincidence  that  in  the  following  July  and 
August,  while  wintering  on  the  Patagonia  coast 
at  Port  St.  Julian,  Drake  should  have  discovered 
symptoms  of  conspiracy  and  felt  obliged  to  be- 
head one  of  his  officers,  as  had  been  the  case  with 
Magellan  at  the  same  place.  By  the  time  he  had 
passed  the  straits  in  his  flagship,  the  Golden 
Hind,1  he  had  quite  lost  sight  of  his  consorts,  who 

had  deserted  him  in  that  watery  labyrinth, 
the  Golden  as  Gomez  had  stolen  away  from  Ma^el- 

Hind. 

lah.  Jb  or  men  or  common  mould  a  voyage 
in-  the  remote  South  Sea  still  had  its  terrors ;  but 
the  dauntless  captain  kept  on  with  his  single  ship 

1  Originally  the  Pelican;  see  Barrow's  Life  of  Drake,  pp.  113, 
166,  171. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  27 

of  twenty  guns,  and  from  Valparaiso  northward 
along  the  Peruvian  coast  dashed  into  seaports  and 
captured  vessels,  carrying  away  enormous  treas- 
ures in  gold  and  silver  and  jewels,  besides  such 
provisions  as  were  needed  for  his  crew.  With 
other  property  he  meddled  but  little,  and  no  acts 
of  wanton  cruelty  sullied  his  performances.  After 
taking  plunder  worth  millions  of  dollars,  this  cor- 
sair-work gave  place  to  scientific  discovery,  and 
the  Golden  Hind  sailed  far  northward  in  search 
of  a  northeast  passage  into  the  Atlantic.  Drake 
visited  a  noble  bay,  which  may  have  been  that  of 
San  Francisco,  and  sailed  some  distance  along  that 
coast,  which  he  called  New  Albion.  It  is  proba- 
ble, though  not  quite  certain,  that  he  saw  some 
portion  of  the  coast  of  Oregon.  Not  finding  any 
signs  of  a  northeast  passage,  he  turned  his  prow 
westward,  crossed  the  Pacific,  and  returned  home 
by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  arriving  at 
Plymouth  in  September,  1580.  Some  time  after- 
ward he  went  up  the  Thames  to  Deptford,  where 
the  queen  came  to  dinner  on  board  the  Golden 
Hind,  and  knighted  on  his  own  quarter-deck  the 
bold  captain  who  had  first  carried  the  English  flag 
around  the  world.  The  enthusiastic  chronicler  Hol- 
inshed  wished  that  in  memory  of  this  grand  achieve- 
ment the  ship  should  be  set  upon  the  top  of  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  "that  being  discerned  farre  and 
neere,  it  might  be  noted  and  pointed  at  of  people 
with  these  true  termes  :  Yonder  is  the  barke  that 
hath  sailed  round  about  the  world."  l  A  different 
career  awaited  the  sturdy  Golden  Hind ;  for  many 
1  Barrow's  Life  of  Drake,  p.  167. 


28     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

a  year  she  was  kept  at  Deptford,  'a  worthy  object 
A  nobie ban-  °^  popular  admiration,  and  her  cabin 
quet  room.  wag  ma(je  jn^o  a  banquet  room  wherein 
young  and  old  might  partake  of  the  mutton  and 
ale  of  merry  England ;  until  at  •  last,  when  the 
venerable  ship  herself  had  succumbed  to  the  tooth 
of  Time,  a  capacious  chair  was  carved  from  her 
timbers  and  presented  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
where  it  may  still  be  seen  in  the  Bodleian  Library. 
In  it  sat  Abraham  Cowley  when  he  wrote  the 
poem  in  which  occur  the  following  verses  :  — 

' '  Drake  and  his  ship  could  not  have  wished  from  Fate 
A  happier  station  or  more  blest  estate. 
For  lo  !  a  seat  of  endless  rest  is  given 
To  her  in  Oxford  and  to  him  in  heaven." 

Meanwhile  in  the  autumn  of  1578,  while  the 
coasts  of  Chili  were  echoing  the  roar  of  the 
Golden  Hind's  cannon,  a  squadron  of  seven  ships 
sailed  from  England,  with  intent  to  found  a  per- 
manent colony  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North 
America.  Its  captain  was  one  of  the 

Voyage  of  .  . 

Gilbert  and    most    eminent   or    Devonshire   worthies, 

Raleigh.  _. 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  and  one  of  the 
ships  was  commanded  by  his  half-brother,  Walter 
Raleigh,  a  young  man  of  six-and-twenty  who  had 
lately  returned  from  volunteer  service  in  the  Neth- 
erlands. The  destination  of  the  voyage  was  "  Nor- 
umbega,"  which  may  have  meant  any  place  be- 
tween the  Hudson  and  Penobscot  rivers,  but  was 
conceived  with  supreme  vagueness,  as  may  be  seen 
from  Michael  Lok's  map  of  1582.1  This  little 

1  See  below,  p.  61 ;  and  compare  my  Discovery  of  America,  ii. 
525. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  29 

fleet  had  at  least  one  savage  fight  with  Spaniards, 
and  returned  to  Plymouth  without  accomplishing 
anything.  In  1583  Gilbert  sought  a  favourable 
place  for  settlement  on  the  southern  coast  of  New- 
foundland, probably  with  a  view  to  driving  the 
Spaniards  away  from  the  fishing  grounds,  but  an 
ill  fate  overtook  him.  On  the  American  coast  his 
principal  vessel  crushed  its  bows  against  a  sunken 
rock  and  nearly  all  hands  were  lost.  With  two 
small  ships  the  captain  soon  set  sail  for  home,  but 
his  own  tiny  craft  foundered  in  a  terrible  ghipw^eck 
storm  near  Fayal.  As  she  sank,  Gilbert  of  GUbert- 
cheerily  shouted  over  the  tafferel  to  his  consort, 
"  The  way  to  heaven  is  as  near  by  sea  as  by 
land,"  a  speech,  says  his  chronicler,  "  well  beseem- 
ing a  soldier  resolute  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  I  can 
testify  he  was." 

It  was  not  Raleigh's  fault  that  he  did  not  share 
the  fate  of  his  revered  half-brother,  for  the  queen's 
mind  had  been  full  of  forebodings  and  she  had 
refused  to  let  him  go  on  the  voyage.  It  was  since 
the  former  disastrous  expedition  that  Raleigh  had 
so  quickly  risen  in  favour  at  court  ;  that  he  had 
thrown  down  his  velvet  cloak  as  a  mat  for  Eliza- 
beth's feet  and  had  written  on  a  window-pane  the 
well-known  verse  which  that  royal  coquette  so  clev- 
erly capped.  He  became  Captain  of  the  Queen's 
Guard  and  Lord  Warden  of  the  Stannaries,  and 
was  presented  with  the  confiscated  estates  of  trai- 
tors in  England  and  Ireland.  In  1584, 

i  t  •       i  iici          -i  /»          Gilbert's  pa- 

when  his  late  halt-brother  s  patent  lor  teut  granted 


1        J    •        *  •        i     •,  i 

land  in  America  expired,  it  was  renewed 

in  Raleigh's  name.    On  March  25th  was  sealed  the 


30      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

document  that  empowered  him  to  "  hold  by  homage 
remote  heathen  and  barbarous  lands,  not  actually 
possessed  by  any  Christian  prince,  nor  inhabited 
by  Christian  people,  which  he  might  discover 
within  the  next  six  years." 1  As  had  been  the 
custom  with  Spanish  and  Portuguese  grants  to 
explorers,  one  fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver  to  be 
obtained  was  to  be  reserved  for  the  crown.  The 
heathen  and  barbarous  land  which  Raleigh  had  in 
view  was  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America  so 
far  as  he  might  succeed  in  occupying  it.  He  knew 
that  Spain  claimed  it  all  as  her  own  by  virtue  of 
the  bull  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  but  Elizabeth  had 
already  declared  in  1581  that  she  cared  nothing 
for  papal  bulls  and  would  recognize  no  Spanish 
claims  to  America  save  such  as  were  based  upon 
discovery  followed  by  actual  possession.2  Raleigh's 
attention  had  long  been  turned  toward  Florida. 
In  youth  he  had  served  in  France  under  Coligny, 
and  had  opportunities  for  hearing  that  statesman's 
plan  for  founding  a  Protestant  state  in  America 
discussed.  We  have  seen  Le  Moine,  the  French 
artist  who  escaped  from  the  Florida  massacre,  con- 
sorting with  Raleigh  and  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 
Upon  those  men  fell  the  mantle  of  Coligny,  and 
the  people  of  the  United  States  may  well  be  proud 
to  point  to  such  noble  figures  standing  upon  the 
threshold  of  our  history. 

One  provision  in  the  Gilbert  patent,  now  re- 
newed for  Raleigh,  is  worth  especial  mention.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  English  colonies  which  should 

1  Stebbing's  Sir  Walter  Ralegh,  p.  43. 

2  Brown's  Genesis,  p.  10. 


THE  SEA   KINGS.  31 

be  planted  in  America  "  should  have  all  the  privi- 
leges of  free  denizens  and  persons  native  of  Eng- 
land, in  such  ample  manner  as  if  they  were  born 
and  personally  resident  in  our  said  realm  of  Eng- 
land," and  that  any  law  to  the  contrary  should  be 
of  no  effect ;  furthermore,  that  the  peo- 

1-1111  i     Promise  of 

pie  of  those  colonies  should  be  governed  seif-govern- 

*  ment. 

by  such  statutes  as  they  might  choose  to 
establish  for  themselves,  provided  that  such  stat- 
utes "conform  as  near  as  conveniently  may  be 
with  those  of  England,  and  do  not  oppugn  the 
Christian  faith,  or  anyway  withdraw  the  people 
of  those  lands  from  our  allegiance."  A  more 
unequivocal  acknowledgment  of  the  rights  of  self- 
government  which  a  British  government  of  two 
centuries  later  saw  fit  to  ignore,  it  would  be  hard 
to  find.  Gilbert  and  Raleigh  demanded  and 
Elizabeth  granted  in  principle  just  what  Patrick 
Henry  and  Samuel  Adams  demanded  and  George 
III.  refused  to  concede. 

The  wealthy  Raleigh  could  act  promptly,  and 
before  five  weeks  had  elapsed  two  ships,  com- 
manded by  Philip  Amidas  and  Arthur  voyage  of 
Barlow,  had  started  on  a  reconnoitring  B™iow,'md 
voyage.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1584,  they  1584" 
reached  the  country  now  known  as  North  Caro- 
lina, at  some  point  not  far  from  Cape  Lookout. 
Thence  a  northerly  run  of  over  a  hundred  miles 
brought  them  to  the  New  Inlet,  through  which 
they  passed  into  Pamlico  Sound  and  visited  Roan- 
oke  Island.  They  admired  the  noble  pine-trees 
and  red  cedars,  marvelled  at  the  abundance  of 
game,  and  found  the  native  barbarians  polite  and 


32      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

friendly.  Their  attempt  to  learn  the  name  of  the 
country  resulted  as  not  uncommonly  in  such  first 
parleys  between  strange  tongues.  The  Indian  of 
whom  the  question  was  asked  had  no  idea  what 
was  meant  and  uttered  at  random  the  Ollendorfian 
reply,  "  Win-gan-da-coa,"  which  signified,  "  What 
pretty  clothes  you  wear !  "  So  when  Amidas  and 
Barlow  returned  to  England  they  said  they  had 
visited  a  country  by  the  name  of  Wingandacoa ; 
but  the  queen,  with  a  touch  of  the  euphuism  then 
so  fashionable,  suggested  that  it  should  be  called, 
in  honour  of  herself,  Virginia. 

In  the  spring  of  1585  Raleigh,  who  had  lately 
been  knighted,  sent  out  a  hundred  or  more  men 
commanded  by  Ralph  Lane,  to  make  the  begin- 
nings of  a  settlement.  They  were  convoyed  by 
j^^  Raleigh's  cousin,  Sir  Richard  Grenville, 

pedMon*"  with  seven  well-armed  ships.  They  en- 
tered Pamlico  Sound  through  Ocracoke 
Inlet,  and  trouble  with  the  natives  at  once  began. 
One  of  the  Indians  stole  a  silver  cup,  and  Gren- 
ville unwisely  retaliated  by  setting  fire  to  their 
standing  corn.  Having  thus  sown  the  seeds  of 
calamity  he  set  the  colonists  ashore  upon  Roanoke 
Island  and  went  on  his  way.  The  sagacious  and 
energetic  Lane  explored  the  neighbouring  main- 
land for  many  miles  along  the  coast  and  for  some 
distance  into  the  interior,  and  even  tried  to  find  a 
waterway  into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He  made  up 
his  mind  that  the  country  was  not  favourable  for  a 
new  colony,  and  he  gathered  sundry  bits  of  infor- 
mation which  seemed  to  point  to  Chesapeake  Bay 
as  a  much  better  place.  The  angry  Indians  made 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  33 

much  trouble,  and  after  a  year  had  passed  the 
colonists  were  suffering  from  scarcity  of  food, 
when  all  at  once  Sir  Francis  Drake  appeared  on 
the  scene  with  a  superb  fleet  of  three-and-twenty 
ships.  War  between  Spain  and  England  had 
been  declared  in  July,  1585,  when  Sidney  and 
Drake  were  about  ready  to  execute  a  scheme  that 
contemplated  the  founding  of  an  American  colony 
by  Sidney.  But  the  queen  interfered  and  sent 
Sidney  to  the  Netherlands,  where  he  was  so  soon 
to  die  a  noble  death.  The  terrible  Drake,  whom 
Spaniards,  punning  upon  his  name,  had  begun  to 
call  "Dragon,"  gave  them  fresh  cause  to  dread 
and  revile  him.  He  had  captured  20 
ships  with  250  cannon,  he  had  taken  and  Lane  by  sir 
sacked  Cartagena,  St.  Domingo,  and  St.  "the 
Augustine,  and  on  his  way  home  looked 
in  at  Roanoke  Island,  in  time  to  take  Lane  and  his 
starving  party  on  board  and  carry  them  back  to 
England.  They  had  not  long  been  gone  when 
Grenville  arrived  with  supplies,  and  was  astonished 
at  finding  the  island  deserted.  Knowing  nothing 
of  Lane's  change  of  purpose,  and  believing  that 
his  party  must  still  be  somewhere  in  the  adja- 
cent country,  Grenville  left  a  guard  of  fifteen  men 
on  the  island,  with  ample  supplies,  and  sailed 
away. 

The  stirring  days  of  the  Armada  were  approach- 
ing. When  Lane  arrived  in  England,  his  services 
were  needed  there,  and  after  a  while  we  find  him  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  War.  One  of  this  first 
American  colonizing  party  was  the  wonderful  Suf- 
folk boy,  Thomas  Cavendish,  aged  two-and-twenty, 


34      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

who  had  no  sooner  landed  in  England  than  he  set 

sail  in  command  of  three  ships,  made  his  way  into 

the  Pacific  Ocean,  and   repeated  the  exploits  of 

Drake  from  Chili  to  California,  captured 

Cavendish'a  ,,  o        .     ,     „  ,,  ,     , 

voyage          one  or  opain  s  nnest  galleons,  and  then  in 

around  the  -          ..     , 

world,  two  years  more  completed  the  circumnav- 
igation of  the  globe.  While  the  pupil 
was  thus  nobly  acquitting  himself,  the  master  in 
the  spring  of  1587  outdid  all  former  achievements. 
Sailing  into  the  harbour  of  Cadiz,  Drake  defeated 
the  warships  on  guard  there,  calmly  loaded  his 
own  vessels  with  as  much  Spanish  spoil  as  could 
safely  be  carried,  then  set  fire  to  the  storeships 
and  cut  their  cables.  More  than  a  hundred  trans- 
ports, some  of  them  1,500  tons  in  burthen,  all 
laden  with  stores  for  the  Armada,  became  a  tan- 
Drake  gkd  and  drifting  mass  of  blazing  ruin, 
be8ardg»8ohfe  while  amid  the  thunder  of  exploding 
piuhp  n.  magazines  the  victor  went  forth  on  his 
way  unscathed  and  rejoicing.  Day  after  day  he 
crouched  under  the  beetling  crags  of  Cintra,  catch- 
ing and  sinking  every  craft  that  passed  that  lair, 
then  swept  like  a  tempest  into  the  bay  of  Coruna 
and  wrought  similar  havoc  to  that  of  Cadiz,  then 
stood  off  for  the  Azores  and,  captured  the  great 
carrack  on  its  way  from  the  Indies  with  treasure 
reckoned  by  millions.  Europe  stood  dumb  with 
amazement.  What  manner  of  man  was  it  that 
could  thus  "singe  the  King  of  Spain's  beard"? 
"  Philip  one  day  invited  a  lady  of  the  court  to  join 
him  in  his  barge  on  the  Lake  of  Segovia.  The 
lady  said  she  dared  not  trust  herself  on  the  water, 
even  with  his  Majesty,"  for  fear  of  Sir  Francis 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  35 

Drake.1  Philip's  Armada  had  to  wait  for  another 
year,  while  by  night  and  day  the  music  of  adze  and 
hammer  was  heard  in  English  shipyards. 

Just  as  "the  Dragon"  returned  to  England 
another  party  of  Raleigh's  colonists  was  approach- 
ing the  American  coast.  There  were  about  150, 
including  17  women.  John  White,  a  man  deft 
with  water-colours,  who  had  been  the  artist  of 
Lane's  expedition,  was  their  governor.  Their  set- 
tlement was  to  be  made  on  the  shore  of  White»8 
Chesapeake  Bay,  but  first  they  must  stop  ^^J^1 
at  Eoanoke  Island  and  pick  up  the  fifteen  Mand>  15OT- 
men  left  on  watch  by  Grenville.  Through  some 
carelessness  or  misunderstanding  or  bad  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  convoy,  the  people  once  landed 
were  left  in  the  lurch  with  only  one  small  vessel, 
and  thus  were  obliged  to  stay  on  that  fatal  Roan- 
oke  Island.  They  soon  found  that  Grenville's 
little  guard  had  been  massacred  by  red  men.  It 
was  under  these  gloomy  circumstances  that  the 
first  child  of  English  parents  was  born  on  the  soil 
of  the  United  States.  The  governor's  daughter 
Eleanor  was  wife  of  Ananias  Dare,  and  their  little 
girl,  born  August  18,  1587,  was  named  Virginia. 
Before  she  was  ten  days  old  her  grandfather  found 
it  necessary  to  take  the  ship  and  return  to  England 
for  help. 

But  the  day  of  judgment  for  Spain  and  Eng- 
land was  at  hand,  and  lesser  things  must  wait. 
Amid  the  turmoil  of  military  preparation,  Sir 
Walter  was  not  unmindful  of  his  little  colony. 
Twice  he  fitted  out  relief  expeditions,  but  the  first 
1  Froude,  History  of  England,  xii.  392. 


36      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

was  stopped  because  all  the  ships  were  seized  for 
government  service,  and  the  second  was  driven 
back  into  port  by  Spanish  cruisers.  While  the 
anxious  governor  waited  through  the  lengthening 
days  into  the  summer  of  1588,  there  came, 

The  Invinci-         .  ,     ...  .  ,  -.111 

we  Armada,  with  its  imperious  haste,  its  deadly  agony 
and  fury,  its  world-astounding  triumph, 
the  event  most  tremendous,  perhaps,  that  mankind 
have  witnessed  since  the  star  of  the  Wise  Men 
stood  over  the  stable  at  Bethlehem.  Then  you  might 
have  seen  the  sea  kings  working  in  good  fellowship 
together,  —  Drake  and  Hawkins,  Winter  and  Fro- 
bisher,  with  Howard  of  Effingham  in  the  Channel 
fleet ;  Raleigh  and  Grenville  active  alike  in  council 
and  afield ;  the  two  great  ministers,  Burghley  and 
Walsingham,  ever  crafty  and  vigilant ;  and  in  the 
background  on  her  white  palfrey  the  eccentric 
figure  of  the  strangely  wayward  and  wilful  but 
always  brave  and  patriotic  Queen.  Even  after 
three  centuries  it  is  with  bated  breath  that  we 
watch  those  130  black  hulks  coming  up  the  Chan- 
nel, with  3,000  cannon  and  30,000  men  on  board, 
among  them  ninety  executioners  withal,  equipped 
with  racks  and  thumbscrews,  to  inaugurate  on 
English  soil  the  accursed  work  of  the  Inquisition. 
In  camp  at  Dunkirk  the  greatest  general  of  the 
age,  Alexander  Farnese,  with  35,000  veterans  is 
crouching  for  a  spring,  like  a  still  greater  general 
at  Boulogne  in  later  days  ;  and  one  wonders  if 
the  80,000  raw  militia  slowly  mustering  in  the 
busy  little  towns  and  green  hamlets  of  England 
can  withstand  these  well-trained  warriors. 

In  the  English  fleet  there  were  about  as  many 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  37 

ships  as  the  enemy  had,  much  smaller  in  size  and 
inferior  in  weight  of  metal,  but  at  the  same  time 
far  more  nimble  in  movement.  Of  cannon  and 
men  the  English  had  scarcely  half  as  many  as  the 
Spaniards,  but  this  disparity  was  more  than  offset 
by  one  great  advantage.  Our  forefathers  had 
already  begun  to  display  the  inventive  ingenuity 
for  which  their  descendants  in  both  hemispheres 
have  since  become  preeminent.  Many  of  their 
ships  were  armed  with  new  guns,  of  longer  range 
than  any  hitherto  known,  and  this  advantage, 
combined  with  their  greater  nimbleness,  made  it 
possible  in  many  cases  to  pound  a  Spanish  ship  to 
pieces  without  receiving  any  serious  hurt  Defeat  of 
in  return.  In  such  respects,  as  well  as  ^e  InTmci" 
in  the  seamanship  by  which  the  two  fleets  Armada- 
were  handled,  it  was  modern  intelligence  pitted 
against  mediaeval  chivalry.  Such  captains  as  served 
Elizabeth  were  not  reared  under  the  blighting 
shadow  of  the  Escurial.  With  the  discomfiture  of 
the  Invincible  Armada  before  Dunkirk,  the  army 
of  Farnese  at  once  became  useless  for  invading 
England.  Then  came  the  awful  discovery  that  the 
mighty  fleet  was  penned  up  in  the  German  Ocean, 
for  Drake  held  the  Strait  of  Dover  in  his  iron 
grip.  The  horrors  of  the  long  retreat  through 
northern  seas  have  never  been  equalled  save  when 
Napoleon's  hosts  were  shattered  in  Russia.  In 
the  disparity  of  losses,  as  in  the  immensity  of  the 
issues  at  stake,  we  are  reminded  of  the  Greeks 
and  Persians  at  Salamis  ;  of  Spaniards  more  than 
20,000  perished,  but  scarcely  100  Englishmen. 
The  frightful  loss  of  ships  and  guns  announced  the 


38      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

overthrow  of  Spanish  supremacy,  but  the  bitter 
end  was  yet  to  come.  During  the  next  three  years 
the  activity  of  the  sea  kings  reached  such  a  pitch 
that  more  than  800  Spanish  ships  were  destroyed.1 
Battle  of  The  final  blow  came  soon  after  the  deaths 
Cadiz,  15%.  of  Drake  and  Hawkins  in  1596,  when 

Raleigh,  with  the  Earl  of  Essex  and  Lord  Thomas 
Howard,  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet  in  that  great 
battle  before  Cadiz  whereof  Ealeigh  wrote  that 
"  if  any  man  had  a  desire  to  see  Hell  itself,  it  was 
there  most  lively  figured."  2 

It  was  not  until  March,  1591,  that  Governor 
White  succeeded  in  getting  to  sea  again  for  the 
rescue  of  his  family  and  friends.  He  had  to  go 
as  passenger  in  a  West  Indiaman.  When  he 
landed,  upon  the  return  voyage,  at  Roanoke 
Island,  it  was  just  in  time  to  have  celebrated  his 
little  grandchild's  fourth  birthday.  It  had  been 
agreed  that  should  the  colonists  leave  that  spot 
they  should  carve  upon  a  tree  the  name  of  the 
place  to  which  they  were  going,  and  if  they 
Mystery  of  should  add  to  the  name  a  cross  it  would 
whitens  °f  be  understood  as  a  signal  of  distress, 
colony.  When  White  arrived  he  found  grass 
growing  in  the  deserted  blockhouse.  Under  the 
cedars  hard  by  five  chests  had  been  buried,  and 
somebody  had  afterwards  dug  them  up  and  rifled 
them.  Fragments  of  his  own  books  and  pictures 
lay  scattered  about.  On  a  great  tree  was  cut  in 
big  letters,  but  without  any  cross,  the  word 
CROATAN,  which  was  the  name  of  a  neighbouring 

1  Brown's  Genesis,  i.  20. 

2  Stebbing's  Ealegh,  p.  129. 


THE  SEA  KINGS.  39 

island.  The  captain  of  the  ship  was  at  first  willing 
to  take  White  to  Croatan,  but  a  fierce  storm  over- 
took him  and  after  beating  about  for  some  days  he 
insisted  upon  making  for  England  in  spite  of  the 
poor  man's  entreaties.  No  more  did  White  ever 
hear  of  his  loved  ones.  Sixteen  years  afterward 
the  settlers  at  Jamestown  were  told  by  Indians 
that  the  white  people  abandoned  at  Roanoke  had 
mingled  with  the  natives  and  lived  with  them  for 
some  years  on  amicable  terms  until  at  the  insti- 
gation of  certain  medicine-men  (who  probably 
accused  them  of  witchcraft)  they  had  all  been 
murdered,  except  four  men,  two  boys,  and  a  young 
woman,  who  were  spared  by  request  or  order  of  a 
chief.  Whether  this  young  woman  was  Virginia 
Dare,  the  first  American  girl,  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing.1 

Nothing  could  better  illustrate  than  the  pathetic 
fate  of  this  little  colony  how  necessary  it  was  to 
destroy  the  naval  power  of  Spain  before 


England  could  occupy  the  soil  of  North  %  theedefeat 
America.  The  defeat  of  the  Invincible  Armada- 
Armada  was  the  opening  event  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  the  event  that  made  all 
the  rest  possible.  Without  it  the  attempts  at 
Jamestown  and  Plymouth  could  hardly  have  had 
more  success  than  the  attempt  at  Roanoke  Island. 
An  infant  colony  is  like  an  army  at  the  end  of  a 
long  line  of  communications;  it  perishes  if  the 

1  The  fate  of  White's  colony  has  been  a  subject  for  speculation 
even  to  the  present  day  ;  and  attempts  have  been  made  to  detect 
its  half-breed  descendants  among  the  existing  population  of 
North  Carolina.  The  evidence,  however,  is  too  frail  to  support 
the  conclusions. 


40      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

line  is  cut.  Before  England  could  plant  thriving 
states  in  America  she  must  control  the  ocean 
routes.  The  far-sighted  Raleigh  understood  the 
conditions  of  the  problem.  When  he  smote  the 
Spaniards  at  Cadiz  he  knew  it  was  a  blow  struck 
for  America.  He  felt  the  full  significance  of  the 
defeat  of  the  Armada,  and  in  spite  of  all  his  dis- 
appointments with  Virginia,  he  never  lost  heart. 
In  1602  he  wrote  to  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  "  I  shall  yet 
live  to  see  it  an  English  nation." 

In   the  following   chapters   we   shall  see  how 
Raleigh's  brave  words  came  true. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  DISCOURSE   OP   WESTERN  PLANTING. 

IN  all  the  history  of  human  knowledge  there  is 
no  more  fascinating  chapter  than  that  which  deals 
with  the  gradual  expansion  of  men's  geographical 
ideas  consequent  upon  the  great  voyages  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  It  is  not  a  tale 
so  written  that  he  who  runs  may  read  it,  but  its 
events  have  rather  to  be  slowly  deciphered  from 
hundreds  of  quaint  old  maps,  whereon  islands  and 
continents,  mountains  and  rivers,  are  delineated 
with  very  slight  resemblance  to  what  we  now  know 
to  be  the  reality;  where,  for  instance, 

i  Sixteenth 

(jog  and  Magog  show  a  strong  tendency  century 
to  get   mixed  up  with   Memphremagog, 
where  the  capital  of  China  stands  a  few  hundred 
miles  north  of  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  your  eye 
falls  upon  a  river  which  you  feel  sure  is  the  St. 
Lawrence  until  you  learn  that  it  is  meant  for  the 
Yang-tse-Kiang.    In  the  sixteenth  century  scarcely 
any  intellectual  stimulus  could  be  found  more  po- 
tent than  the   sight  of  such  maps,  revealing  un- 
known  lands,  or  cities   and   rivers  with  strange 
names,  places  of  which  many  marvels  had  been 
recounted  and  almost  anything  might  be  believed. 
One   afternoon   in  the  year  1568,  the  lawyer 
Richard  Hakluyt  was  sitting  at  his  desk  in  the 


42     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Middle  Temple,  with  a  number  of  such  maps  and 
sundry  new  books  of  cosmography  spread  out 
before  him,  when  the  door  opened  and  his  young 
cousin  and  namesake,  then  a  boy  of  sixteen  study- 
ing at  Westminster  School,  came  into  the  room. 
The  elder  Eichard  opened  the  Bible  at  the  107th 
Psalm,  and  pointed  to  the  verses  which  declare 
that  "  they  which  go  downe  to  the  sea  in  ships  and 
occupy  by  the  great  waters,  they  see  the  works  of 
the  Lord  and  his  wonders  in  the  deep ;  "  then  he 
called  the  lad's  attention  to  the  maps,  in  which  he 
soon  became  absorbed.  This  incident  determined 
Richard  *ne  career  of  the  younger  Richard  Hak- 
Hakiuyt.  luyt,  and  led  to  his  playing  an  important 
part  in  the  beginnings  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  A  learned  and  sagacious  writer  upon 
American  history,  Mr.  Doyle,  of  All  Souls  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  has  truly  said  that  it  is  "hard  to 
estimate  at  its  full  value  the  debt  which  succeeding 
generations  owe  to  Richard  Hakluyt."  1  In  1570 
he  became  a  student  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
and  took  his  master's  degree  in  1577.  His  book 
called  "  Divers  Voyages,"  dedicated  to  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  was  published  in  1582.  From  1583  to 
1588  he  was  chaplain  of  the  English  legation  at 
Paris,  and  before  his  return  he  was  appointed 
canon  of  Bristol,  an  office  which  he  held  till  1605. 
Thus  for  many  years  he  lived  in  the  city  of  the 
Cabots,  the  cradle  of  the  new  era  of  maritime  ad- 
venture. He  came  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the 
foremost  geographers  of  the  age  and  the  greatest 
living  English  authority  on  matters  relating  to  the 
1  Doyle,  Virginia,  etc.  p.  106. 


A  DISCOURSE   OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     43 

New  World.  The  year  following  the  defeat  of  the 
Armada  witnessed  the  publication  of  his  book  enti- 
tled "  Principal  Voyages,"  which  Froude  well  calls 
"  the  prose  epic  of  the  modern  English  nation." 1 
In  1605  he  was  made  a  prebendary  of  Westmin- 
ster, and  eleven  years  later  was  buried  with  distin- 
guished honours  beneath  the  pavement  of  the  great 
Abbey. 

The  book  of  Hakluyt's  which  here  most  nearly 
concerns  us  is  the  "  Discourse  of  Western  Plant- 
ing," written  in  1584,  shortly  before  the  return  of 
the  ships  of  Amidas  and  Barlow  from  Roanoke 
Island.  It  was  not  published,  nor  was  immediate 
publication  its  aim.  It  was  intended  to  influence 
the  mind  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  manuscript 
was  handed  to  her  about  September,  1584,  and 
after  a  while  was  lost  sight  of  until  after  a  long 
period  of  oblivion  it  turned  up  in  the 
library  of  Sir  Peter  Thomson,  an  inde-  ofamanu- 
fatigable  collector  of  literary  treasures, 
who  died  in  1770.  It  was  bought  from  his  family 
by  Lord  Valentia,  after  whose  death  it  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  famous  bibliophile  Henry  Stevens, 
who  sold  it  to  Sir  Thomas  Phillips  for  his  vast 
collection  of  archives  at  Thirlestane  House,  Chel- 
tenham. In  1869  a  copy  of  it  was  made  for  Dr. 
Leonard  Woods,  President  of  Bowdoin  College,  by 
whom  it  was  ably  edited  for  the  Maine  Historical 
Society ;  and  at  length,  in  1877,  after  a  sleep  of 
nearly  three  centuries,  it  was  printed  at  our  New 
England  Cambridge,  at  the  University  Press,  and 

1  Hakluyt's  Discourse  of  Western  Planting  (in  Maine  Hist.  Soc, 
Coll.),  Cambridge,  1877,  p.  x. 


44      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

published   with  valuable   notes   by  the   late   Dr. 
Charles  Deane. 

Hakluyt  wrote  this  document  at  the  request  of 
Raleigh,  who  wished  to  persuade  the  queen  to  in- 
vest money  in  a  colonizing  expedition  to  the  New 
World.  Such  an  enterprise,  he  felt,  was  too  great 
for  any  individual  purse  and  needed  support  from 
government.  No  one  had  studied  the  subject  so 
thoroughly  as  Hakluyt,  and  so  Raleigh  enlisted  his 
services.  In  twenty-one  brief  chapters  Hakluyt 
sets  forth  the  various  reasons  why  England  should 
plant  colonies  on  the  coast  of  North  America.  The 
chief  reasons  are  that  such  colonies  will 

Reasons  for  m  -.».»... 

planting        enlarge  the   occasions  and  facilities  for 

English  col-       ,    .     .  o  •   t          i  •  c  i          -KT 

oniesin  driving     Spanish     Ships     from     the     New- 

America,  -ll          -I  l          •  1  •  O 

foundland  fisheries  and  capturing  Span- 
ish treasure  on  its  way  from  Mexico  and  the  isth- 
mus of  Darien  ;  they  will  be  serviceable  as  stations 
toward  the  discovery  and  use  of  the  northwest  pas- 
sage to  Cathay  ;  after  a  while  they  will  furnish 
a  valuable  market  for  the  products  of  English  in- 
dustry, especially  woollen  and  linen  cloths ;  they 
will  increase  the  royal  revenue  by  customs  duties ; 
they  will  afford  new  material  for  the  growth  of 
the  navy ;  and  in  various  ways  they  will  relieve 
England  of  its  idlers  and  vagrants  by  finding  occu- 
pation for  them  abroad.  In  his  terse  quaint  way, 
the  writer  emphasizes  these  points.  As  for  the 
Spanish  king,  "  if  you  touche  him  in  the  Indies 
you  touche  the  apple  of  his  eye ;  for  take  away  his 
treasure,  which  is  nervus  belli,  and  which  he  hath 
almoste  [all]  out  of  his  West  Indies,  his  olde 
bandes  of  souldiers  will  soone  be  dissolved,  his  pur- 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     45 

poses  defeated,  .  .  .  his  pride  abated,  and  his 
tyrauie  utterly  suppressed."  "He  shall  be  left 
bare  as  ^Esop's  proude  crowe."  With  regard  to 
creating  a  new  market  he  says :  "  Nowe  if  her 
Majestie  take  these  westerne  discoveries  in  hande, 
and  plant  there,  yt  is  like  that  in  short  time  wee 
shall  vente  as  greate  a  masse  of  clothe  yn  those 
partes  as  ever  wee  did  in  the  Netherlandes,  and  in 
tyme  moche  more."  In  this  connection  he  gives  a 
striking  illustration  of  the  closeness  of  the  commer- 
cial ties  which  had  been  knit  between  England  and 
the  Low  Countries  in  the  course  of  the  long  alli- 
ance with  the  House  of  Burgundy.  In  1550,  when 
Charles  V.  proposed  to  introduce  the  Spanish  In- 
quisition into  the  Netherlands,  it  was  objected 
that  all  English  merchants  would  then  quit  the 
country,  and  the  English  trade  would  be  Engiish 
grievously  diminished.  At  this  sugges-  KeTher- 
tion,  "  search  was  made  what  profite  Iands< 
there  came  and  comoditie  grewe  by  the  haunte  of 
the  Englishe  marchantes.  Then  it  was  founde  by 
searche  and  enquirie,  that  within  the  towne  of  Ant- 
werpe  alone  there  were  14,000  persons  fedde  and 
mayneteyned  onlye  by  the  workinge  of  English 
commodities,  besides  the  gaines  that  marchantes 
and  shippers  with  other  in  the  said  towne  did  gett, 
which  was  the  greatest  part  of  their  lyvinge,  which 
were  thoughte  to  be  in  nomber  halfe  as  many 
more  ;  and  in  all  other  places  of  his  Netherlandes 
by  the  indraping  of  Englishe  woll  into  clothe,  and 
by  the  working  of  other  Englishe  comodities,  there 
were  30,000  persons  more  mayneteyned  and  fedd ; 
which  in  all  amounteth  to  the  nomber  of  51,000 


46      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

persons."  When  this  report  was  given  to  Charles 
V.  it  led  him  to  pause  and  consider,  as  well  it 
might. 

According  to  Hakluyt  an  English  colony  in 
America  would  soon  afford  as  good  a  market  for 
An  Ameri-  English  labour  as  the  Netherlands.  He 
can  market.  wag  impresse(j  ^ifa  the  belief  that  the 
population  of  England  was  fast  outrunning  its 
means  of  subsistence.  Now  if  the  surplus  of  popu- 
lation could  be  drawn  to  America  it  would  find 
occupation  in  raising  the  products  of  that  new  soil 
to  exchange  for  commodities  from  England,  and 
this  exchange  in  its  turn  would  increase  the  de- 
mand for  English  commodities  and  for  the  labour 
which  produced  them,  so  that  fewer  people  in 
England  would  be  left  without  employment.  Such 
is  Hakluyt's  idea,  though  he  nowhere  states  it 
quite  so  formally.  It  is  interesting  because  there 
is  no  doubt  that  he  was  not  alone  in  holding  such 
views.  There  was  in  many  quarters  a  feeling  that, 
with  its  population  of  about  5,000,000,  England 
was  getting  to  be  over-peopled.  This  was  probably 
because  for  some  time  past  the  supply  of  food  and 
the  supply  of  work  had  both  been  diminishing 
relatively  to  the  number  of  people.  For  more 
than  a  century  the  wool  trade  had  been  waxing  so 
profitable  that  great  tracts  of  land  which  had  for- 
merly been  subject  to  tillage  were  year  by  year 
The  change  turned  into  pastures  for  sheep.  This 
to'^sur^8  process  not  only  tended  to  raise  the  price 
of  food,  but  it  deprived  many  people  of 
employment,  since  sheep-farming  requires  fewer 
hands  than  tilling  the  soil.  Since  the  accession  of 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     47 

Henry  VIII.  there  had  been  many  legislative 
attempts  to  check  the  conversion  of  ploughed 
land  into  grassy  fields,  but  the  change  still  con- 
tinued to  go  on.1  The  enormous  increase  in  the 
quantity  of  precious  metals  had  still  further  raised 
the  price  of  food,  while  as  people  were  thrown  out 
of  employment  the  labour  market  tended  to  become 
overstocked  so  that  wages  did  not  rise.  These 
changes  bore  with  especial  severity  upon  the  class 
of  peasants.  The  condition  of  the  freeholding 
yeomanry  was  much  improved  during  the  sixteenth 
century.  Stone  houses  with  floors  had  taken  the 
place  of  rude  cabins  with  rushes  carpeting  the 
ground ;  meat  was  oftener  eaten,  clothes  were  of 

1  The  case  is  put  vigorously  by  Sir  Thomas  More  in  1516 : 
"  Your  sheep,  that  were  wont  to  be  so  meek  and  tame,  are  now 
become  so  great  devourers  and  so  wild  that  they  eat  up  and  swal- 
low down  the  very  men  themselves.  They  consume,  destroy,  and 
devour  whole  fields,  houses,  and  cities ;  for  look  in  what  part  of 
the  realm  doth  grow  the  finest,  and  therefore  dearest  wool,  there 
noblemen  and  gentlemen,  yea,  and  certain  abbots,  holy  men,  God 
wot!  not  contenting  themselves  with  the  yearly  revenues  and 
profits  that  were  wont  to  grow  to  their  forefathers  and  predeces- 
sors of  their  lands,  nor  being  content  that  they  live  in  rest  and 
pleasure  —  nothing  profiting,  yea,  much  annoying  the  weal  pub- 
lick  —  leave  no  ground  for  tillage  ;  they  enclose  all  into  pas- 
tures, they  throw  down  houses,  they  pluck  down  towns,  and 
leave  nothing  standing  but  only  the  church  to  be  made  a  sheep- 
house.  And,  as  though  you  lost  no  small  quantity  of  ground  by 
forests,  chases,  lands,  and  parks,  those  good  holy  men  turn  al) 
dwelling  places  and  all  glebe  lands  into  desolation  and  wilder- 
ness, enclosing  many  thousands  acres  of  ground  together  within 
one  pale  or  hedge,"  while  those  who  formerly  lived  on  the  land, 
"  poor,  silly,  wretched  souls,  men,  women,  husbands,  wives, 
fatherless  children,  widows,  and  woeful  mothers  with  young 
babes,  were  starving  and  homeless.  And  where  many  labourers 
had  existed  by  field  labour,  only  a  single  shepherd  or  herdsman 
was  occupied." —  Utopia,  book  i. 


48      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

better  quality.  But  it  was  otherwise  with  the 
peasants  who  held  by  servile  tenures.  In  the 
abolition  of  mediaeval  serfdom  which  had  been 
going  on  for  two  centuries  and  was  completed  in 
England  so  much  earlier  than  in  any  other  part  of 
Europe,  it  was  not  all  gain  for  the  lowest  grades 
of  labourers.  Some  through  energy  and  good  for- 
tune rose  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  freeholders,  but 
many  others  became  paupers  and  thieves.  The 
change  from  tillage  to  pasturage  affected  this  class 
more  than  any  other,  for  it  turned  many  out  of 
house  and  home ;  so  that,  in  the  words  of  an  old 
writer,  they  "  prowled  about  as  idle  beggars  or 
continued  as  stark  thieves  till  the  gallows  did  eat 
them."  1  The  sudden  destruction  of  the  monasteries 
by  Henry  VIII.  deprived  the  pauper  of  such 
scanty  support  as  he  had  been  wont  to  get  from 
the  vast  wealth  of  the  Church,  and  besides  it  had 
let  loose  upon  society  a  vast  number  of  persons 
with  their  old  occupations  gone  and  set  aside.2  In 
Elizabeth's  reign,  therefore,  for  the  various  reasons 
Growth  of  here  mentioned,  the  growth  of  pauperism 
pauperism.  began  to  attract  especial  attention  as  a 
lamentable  if  not  formidable  evil,  and  the  famous 
"  poor  law "  of  1601  marks  a  kind  of  era  in  the 
social  history  of  England.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, for  men  disheartened  by  poverty  and 
demoralized  by  idleness,  struggling  for  life  in  a 

1  Doyle,  Virginia,  etc.  p.  103.    ; 

2  In  many  cases  the  monasteries  by  injudicious  relief  had  in- 
creased the  number  of   paupers  and   beggars.     The  subject  of 
this  paragraph  is  admirably  expounded  in  Ashley's  Introduction 
to  English  Economic  History,  ii.  190-376. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     49 

community  that  had  ceased  to  need  the  kind  of 
labour  they  could  perform,  the  best  chance  of  sal- 
vation seemed  to  lie  in  emigration  to  a  new  col- 
ony where  the  demand  for  labour  was  sure  to  be 
great,  and  life  might  be  in  a  measure  begun  anew. 
So  thought  the  good  Hakluyt,  and  the  history  of 
the  seventeenth  century  did  much  to  justify  his 
opinion.  The  prodigious  development  of  the  Eng- 
lish commercial  and  naval  marine,  to  which  the 
intercourse  with  the  new  and  thriving  American 
colonies  greatly  contributed,  went  far  toward 
multiplying  the  opportunities  for  employment  and 
diminishing  the  numbers  of  the  needy  and  idle 
class.  Many  of  the  sons  of  the  men  who  had  been 
driven  from  their  farms  by  sheep-raising  landlords 
made  their  home  upon  the  ocean,  and  helped  to 
secure  England's  control  of  the  watery  pathways. 
Many  of  them  found  new  homes  in  America,  and 
as  independent  yeomen  became  more  thrifty  than 
their  peasant  fathers. 

While  there  were  many  people  who  espoused 
Hakluyt's  views,  while  preachers  might  be  heard 
proclaiming  from  the  pulpit  that  "  Virginia  was  a 
door  which  God  had  opened  for  England,"  on  the 
other  hand,  as  in  the  case  of  all  great  en-  opposition 
terprises,  loud  voices  were  raised  in  oppo-  to  Hakluyt 
sition.  To  send  parties  of  men  and  women  to  starve 
in  the  wilderness,  or  be  murdered  by  savages  or 
Spaniards,  was  a  proceeding  worthy  of  severe 
condemnation  for  its  shocking  cruelty,  to  say  no- 
thing of  its  useless  extravagance.  Then,  as  usual, 
the  men  who  could  see  a  few  inches  in  front  of 
their  noses  called  themselves  wise  and  practical, 


50     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

while  they  stigmatized  as  visionary  theorizers  the 
men  whose  imaginations  could  discern,  albeit  in 
dim  outlines,  the  great  future.  As  for  the  queen, 
who  clearly  approved  in  her  innermost  heart  the 
schemes  of  Raleigh  and  Hakluyt,  not  much  was  to 
be  expected  from  her  when  it  came  to  a  question 
of  spending  money.  Elizabeth  carried  into  the 
management  of  public  affairs  a  miserly  spirit  in^ 
herited,  perhaps,  from  her  grandfather,  Henry 

VII.  When  the  Armada  was  actually 
penurious-  entering  the  Channel  she  deemed  it 

sound  economy  to  let  her  sailors  get 
sick  with  sour  ale  rather  than  throw  it  away  and 
buy  fresh  for  them.  Such  a  mind  was  not  likely 
to  appreciate  the  necessity  for  the  enormous  im- 
mediate outlay  involved  in  planting  a  successful 
colony.  That  such  a  document  as  Hakluyt's 
should  be  laid  away  and  forgotten  was  no  more 
than  natural.  To  blame  Elizabeth  unreservedly, 
however,  without  making  some  allowance  for  the 
circumstances  in  which  she  was  placed,  would  be 
crude  and  unfair.  It  was  the  public  money  that 
she  was  called  upon  to  spend,  and  the  military 
pressure  exerted  by  Spain  made  heavy  demands 
upon  it.  In  spite  of  her  pennywise  methods, 
which  were  often  so  provoking,  they  were  proba- 
bly less  ill  suited  to  that  pinching  crisis  than  her 
father's  ready  lavishness  would  have  been. 

That  Raleigh  should  appeal  to  the  sovereign  for 
aid  in  his  enterprise  was  to  have  been  expected. 
It  was  what  all  explorers  and  colonizers  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  doing.  Since  the  days  of  Prince 
Henry  the  Navigator  the  arduous  work  of  discov- 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     51 

ering  and  subduing  the  heathen  world  outside  of 
Europe  had  been  conducted  under  government 
control  and  paid  from  the  public  purse  whenever 
the  plunder  of  the  heathen  did  not  suffice.  In 
some  cases  the  sovereign  was  unwilling  to  allow 
private  capital  to  embark  in  such  enterprises ;  as 
for  example  in  the  spring  of  1491,  when  the  Duke 
of  Medina-Celi  offered  to  fit  out  two  or  three 
caravels  for  Columbus  and  Queen  Isabella  refused 
to  give  him  the  requisite  license,  probably  because 
she  was  "  unwilling  to  have  the  duke  come  in  for 
a  large  share  of  the  profits  in  case  the  venture 
should  prove  successful."  J  Usually,  however,  such 
work  was  beyond  the  reach  of  private  purses,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth  century,  and  in  such  commercial  J^ 
countries  as  the  Netherlands  and  Eng-  comPanie8- 
land,  with  comparatively  free  governments,  that 
joint-stock  companies  began  to  be  formed  for  such 
purposes.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  famous 
Muscovy  Company,  first  formed  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  and  from  that  time  forth  the  joint- 
stock  principle  went  on  rapidly  gaining  strength 
until  its  approach  to  maturity  was  announced  by 
the  creation  of  the  English  East  India  Company 
in  1600  and  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  in 
1602.  The  latter  was  "  the  first  great  joint-stock 
company  whose  shares  were  bought  and  sold  from 
hand  to  hand,"  2  and  these  events  mark  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era  in  European  commerce. 

This     substitution    of    voluntary    cooperation 

1  See  my  Discovery  of  America,  i.  409. 

2  Payne,  European  Colonies,  p.  55. 


52     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

among  interested  individuals  for  compulsory  ac- 
tion under  government  control  was  one  of  the 
most  important  steps  taken  toward  bringing  in  the 
modern  era.  Americans  have  no  reason  to  regret 
that  the  beginnings  of  English  colonization  in  the 
New  World  were  not  made  by  an  English  sover- 
eign. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  very  slight 
connection  between  these  colonies  and  the  Crown 
was  from  the  first  extremely  favourable  to  their 
free  and  untrammelled  development.  Far  better 
that  the  worthy  Hakluyt's  essay  should  get  tucked 
away  in  a  pigeon-hole  than  that  it  should  have  fired 
Elizabeth  to  such  zeal  for  Virginia  as  Louis  XIV. 
a  century  afterward  showed  for  New  France ! 

By  1589  Raleigh  seems  to  have  despaired  of 
finding  the  queen  disposed  to  act  as  a  fairy  god- 
mother. He  reckoned  that  he  had  already  spent 
.£40,000  on  Virginia,  although  this  sum  may  per- 
haps have  included  his  contributions  toward  the 
Arctic  voyages  of  John  Davis.  Such  a  sum  would 
be  equivalent  to  not  less  than  §1,000,000  of  our 
modern  money,  and  no  wonder  if  Raleigh  began 
to  feel  more  than  ever  that  the  undertaking  was 
too  great  for  his  individual  resources.  In  March, 
Raleigh's  1589,  we  find  him,  as  governor  of  Vir- 
difflcuities.  ginia,  assigning  not  his  domain  but  the 
right  to  trade  there  to  a  company,  of  which  John 
White,  Thomas  Smith,  and  Rev.  Richard  Hak- 
luyt  were  the  most  prominent  members.  He  re- 
served for  himself  a  royalty  of  one  fifth  of  all  the 
gold  and  silver  that  should  be  obtained.  The 
Company  did  not  show  much  activity.  We  may 
well  believe  that  it  was  too  soon  after  the  Armada. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     53 

Business  affairs  had  not  had  time  to  recover  from 
that  severe  strain.  But  Kaleigh  never  lost  sight 
of  Virginia.  Southey's  accusation  that  he  sent 
out  colonists  and  then  abandoned  them  was  ill- 
considered.  We  have  already  seen  why  it  proved 
impossible  to  send  help  to  John  White's  colony. 

In  the  pursuit  of  his  various  interests  the 
all  -  accomplished  knight  sometimes  encountered 
strange  vicissitudes.  With  all  his  flattery  of  the 
crowned  coquette,  Elizabeth  Tudor,  the  true  sover- 
eign of  his  heart  was  one  of  the  ladies  of  the  court, 
the  young  and  beautiful  Elizabeth  Throckmorton. 
To  our  prosaic  modern  minds  the  attitude  of  the 
great  queen  toward  the  favourite  courtiers  whom 
she  could  by  no  possibility  dream  of  raising  to  the 
dignity  of  prince-consort  seems  incomprehensible. 
But  after  a  due  perusal  of  the  English  dramatists 
of  the  time,  the  romance  of  Sidney,  the  extrava- 
gances of  Lyly,  the  poetry  of  Spenser  and  Ron- 
sard,  or  some  of  those  tales  of  chivalry  that  turned 
good  Don  Quixote's  brain,  we  are  beguiled  into 
the  right  sort  of  atmosphere  for  understanding  it. 
For  any  of  Elizabeth's  counsellors  or  favourites  to 
make  love  to  any  other  lady  was  apt  to  call  down 
some  manifestation  of  displeasure,  and  in  1592 
some  circumstances  connected  with  Raleigh's  mar- 
riage l  led  to  his  imprisonment  in  the  Tower.  But 
his  evil  star  was  not  yet  in  the  ascendant.  Within 
a  few  weeks  one  of  his  captains,  Christopher  New- 
port, whom  we  shall  meet  again,  brought  into  Dart- 
mouth harbour  the  great  Spanish  carrack  Madre 

1  Circumstances  not  wholly  creditable  to  him ;  see  Stebbing's 
Ralegh,  pp.  89-94. 


54     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

de   Dios,  with   treasure   from   the   Indies   worth 
nearly  four  millions  of  modern  dollars. 

The  great  .      ,  £    T>    T    •    i  > 

Spanish  car-  A  large  part  ot  Kaleign  s  own  share  in 
the  booty  was  turned  over  to  his  sover- 
eign with  that  blithesome  grace  in  which  none  could 
rival  him,  and  it  served  as  a  ransom.  In  1594  we 
find  him  commanding  an  expedition  to  Guiana 
and  exploring  the  vast  solitudes  of  the  Orinoco  in 
search  of  El  Dorado.  On  his  return  to  England 
he  found  a  brief  interval  of  leisure  in  which  to 
write  that  fascinating  book  on  Guiana  which  David 
Hume  declared  to  be  full  of  lies,  a  gross  calumny 
which  subsequent  knowledge,  gathered  by  Hum- 
boldt  and  since  his  time,  has  entirely  refuted. 
Then  came  the  great  battle  at  Cadiz  in  1596, 
already  mentioned,  and  the  capture  of  Fayal  in 
1597,  when  Raleigh's  fame  reached  its  zenith. 
About  this  time,  or  soon  after,  began  those  am- 
brosial nights,  those  feasts  of  the  gods,  at 

The  Mer- 

maid  iav-  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  where  Selden  and 
Camden,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Ben 
Jonson  and  Dr.  Donne,  sat  around  the  table  with 
Raleigh  and  Shakespeare.  In  that  happy  time  the 
opportunity  for  colonizing  Virginia  seemed  once 
more  to  have  come,  and  in  1602  Raleigh  sent  out 
Samuel  Mace  on  an  expedition  of  which  less  is 
known  than  one  could  wish,  save  that  renewed 
search  was  made  for  White's  lost  colony.  Other- 
wise, says  the  historian  Stith,  this  Mace  "per- 
formed nothing,  but  returned  with  idle  stories  and 
frivolous  allegations." 1  When  he  arrived  in  Eng- 
land in  1603,  sad  changes  had  occurred.  The 

1  Stith's  Virginia,  Sabin's  reprint,  New  York,  1865,  p.  30. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     55 

great  queen  —  great  and  admirable  with  all  her 
faults  —  had  passed  away,  and  a  quaint  pedantic 
little  Scotchman,  with  uncouth  figure  and  King 
shambling  gait  and  a  thickness  of  utter-  JameeL 
ance  due  partly  to  an  ill-formed  tongue  and  partly 
to  excessive  indulgence  in  mountain  dew,  had 
stepped  into  her  place.  A  web  of  intrigue,  basely 
woven  by  Robert  Cecil  and  Henry  Howard,  had 
caught  Raleigh  in  its  meshes.  He  was  hurried  off 
to  the  Tower,  while  an  attainder  bereft  him  of  his 
demesne  of  Virginia  and  handed  it  over  to  the 
crown. 

But  other  strong  hands  were  taking  up  the  work. 
That  Earl  of  Southampton  to  whom  Shakespeare 
ten  years  before  had  dedicated  his  "  Ve- 
nus and  Adonis  "  had  been  implicated  in  of  south- 

ampton. 

Essex's  rebellion  and  narrowly  escaped 
with  his  life.  The  accession  of  James  I.,  which 
was  fraught  with  such  ill  for  Raleigh,  set  South- 
ampton free.  But  already  in  1602,  while  he  was 
still  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  an  expedition  organ- 
ized under  his  auspices  set  sail  for  Virginia.  It 
was  commanded  by  one  of  Raleigh's  old  captains, 
Bartholomew  Gosnold,  and  has  especial  interest  as 
an  event  in  the  beginnings  alike  of  Virginia  and 
of  New  England.  Gosnold  came  to  a  region  which 
some  persons  called  Norumbega,  but  was 

Gosnold, 

soon  to   be   known   tor  a  tew  years   as  Pring,  and 

.    .  •  Weymouth. 

North    Virginia,   and   always   thereafter 
as   New   England.      It  was   he   who   first  wrote 
upon  the  map  the  names  Cape  Cod  and  Martha's 
Vineyard,  and  the  Elizabeth  Islands  in  what  we 
call  Buzzard's  Bay.     His  return  to  England  was 


66      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  occasion  of  a  fresh  and  strong  renewal  of  inter- 
est in  the  business  of  what  Hakluyt  called  "  west- 
ern planting."  The  voyage  of  Martin  Pring  to 
North  Virginia,  at  the  expense  of  sundry  Bristol 
merchants,  followed  in  1603,  and  at  the  same 
time  Bartholomew  Gilbert,  son  of  Sir  Humphrey, 
coasted  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  was 
slain  by  the  Indians  with  several  of  his  men. 
Early  in  1605  Captain  George  Weymouth  set  out 
in  a  vessel  equipped  by  the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
Lord  Arundel  of  Wardour,  and  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges,  governor  of  the  garrison  at  Plymouth. 
After  spending  a  month  in  North  Virginia,  Wey- 
mouth returned  to  England  with  five  captive .  In- 
dians, and  the  popular  interest  aroused  by  his 
arrival  surpassed  that  which  had  been  felt  upon 
former  occasions. 

The  excitement  over  Virginia  was  promptly  re- 
flected upon  the  stage.  The  comedy  of  "  East- 
ward Ho,"  written  by  Chapman  and  Marston,  with 
contributions  from  Ben  Jonson,  was  acted  in  1605 
and  published  in  the  autumn  of  that  year.  The 
title  is  a  survival  of  forms  of  speech  current  when 
America  was  believed  to  be  a  part  of  the  oriental 
world.  Some  extracts  from  this  play  will  serve 
to  illustrate  the  popular  feeling.  In  the  second 
"Eastward  ac*  °^  Security,  the  money  lender,  is 
talking  with  young  Frank  Quicksilver 
about  the  schemes  of  Sir  Petronel  Flash.  Quick- 
silver says,  "  Well,  dad,  let  him  have  money ;  all 
he  could  anyway  get  is  bestowed  on  a  ship,  nowe 
bound  for  Virginia."  Security  replies,  "  Now  a 
frank  gale  of  wind  go  with  him,  Master  Frank ! 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     57 

We  have  too  few  such  knight  adventurers.  Who 
would  not  sell  away  competent  certainties  to  pur- 
chase (with  any  danger)  excellent  uncertainties? 
Your  true  knight  venturer  ever  does  it."  In  the 
next  act  a  messenger  enters. 

Messenger.  Sir  Petronel,  here  are  three  or  four  gen- 
tlemen desire  to  speak  with  you. 

Petronel.    What  are  they  ? 

Quicksilver.  They  are  your  followers  in  this  voyage, 
knight  captain  Seagull  and  his  associates ;  I  met  them 
this  morning  and  told  them  you  would  be  here. 

Petronel.    Let  them  enter,  I  pray  you.  .  .  . 
Enter  Seagull,  Spendall,  and  Scapethrift. 

Seagull.  God  save  my  honourable  colonel ! 

Petronel.    Welcome,  good  Captain  Seagull  and  wor- 
thy gentlemen  ;  if  you  will  meet  my  friend  Frank  here 
and  me  at  the  Blue  Anchor  tavern,  by  Billingsgate,  this 
evening,  we  will  there  drink  to  our  happy  voyage,  be 
merry,  and  take  boat  to  our  ship  with  all  expedition.  .  .  . 
ACT  III.,  SCENE  2.    Enter  Seagull,  Spendall,  and 
Scapethrift  in  the  Blue  Anchor  tavern,  with  a 
Drawer. 

Seagull.  Come,  drawer,  pierce  your  neatest  hogs- 
heads, and  let 's  have  cheer,  —  not  fit  for  your  Billings- 
gate tavern,  but  for  our  Virginian  colonel ;  he  will  be 
here  instantly. 

Drawer.  You  shall  have  all  things  fit,  sir ;  please 
you  have  any  more  wine  ? 

Spendall.  More  wine,  slave !  whether  we  drink  it  or 
no,  spill  it,  and  draw  more. 

Scapethrift.  Fill  all  the  pots  in  your  house  with  all 
sorts  of  liquor,  and  let  'em  wait  on  us  here  like  soldiers 
in  their  pewter  coats ;  and  though  we  do  not  employ 
them  now,  yet  we  will  maintain  'em  till  we  do. 


58     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Drawer.  Said  like  an  honourable  captain  ;  you  shall 
have  all  you  can  command,  sir.  [Exit  Drawer. 

Seagull.  Come  boys,  Virginia  longs  till  we  share  the 
rest  of  her.  .  .  . 

Spendall.  Why,  is  she  inhabited  already  with  any 
English  ? 

Seagull.  A  whole  country  of  English  is  there,  bred 
of  those  that  were  left  there  in  '79  [Here  our  drama- 
tist's date  is  wrong ;  White's  colony,  left  there  in  1587, 
is  meant]  ;  they  have  married  [continues  Seagull]  with 
the  Indians  .  .  .  [who]  are  so  in  love  with  them  that 
all  the  treasure  they  have  they  lay  at  their  feet. 

Scapethrift.  But  is  there  such  treasure  there,  Cap- 
tain, as  I  have  heard  ? 

Seagull.  I  tell  thee,  gold  is  more  plentiful  there  than 
copper  is  with  us ;  and  for  as  much  red  copper  as  I  can 
bring  I  '11  have  thrice  the  weight  in  gold.  Why,  man, 
all  their  dripping-pans  .  .  .  are  pure  gold ;  and  all  the 
chains  with  which  they  chain  up  their  streets  are  massy 
gold  ;  all  the  prisoners  they  take  are  fettered  in  gold  ; 
and  for  rubies  and  diamonds  they  go  forth  on  holidays 
and  gather  'em  by  the  seashore  to  hang  on  their  chil- 
dren's coats,  and  stick  in  their  children's  caps,  as  com- 
monly as  our  children  wear  saffron-gilt  brooches  and 
groats  with  holes  in  'em. 

Scapethrift.    And  is  it  a  pleasant  country  withal  ? 

Seagull.  As  ever  the  sun  shined  on :  temperate,  and 
full  of  all  sorts  of  excellent  viands ;  wild  boar  is  as  com- 
mon there  as  our  tamest  bacon  is  here  ;  venison  as  mut- 
ton. And  then  you  shall  live  freely  there,  without  ser- 
geants, or  courtiers,  or  lawyers.  .  .  .  Then  for  your 
means  to  advancement,  there  it  is  simple  and  not  pre- 
posterously mixed.  You  may  be  an  alderman  there, 
and  never  be  scavenger ;  you  may  be  any  other  officer, 
and  never  be  a  slave.  You  may  come  to  preferment 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     59 

enough,  ...  to  riches  and  fortune  enough,  and  have 
never  the  more  villainy  nor  the  less  wit.  Besides,  there 
we  shall  have  no  more  law  than  conscience,  and  not 
too  much  of  either ;  serve  God  enough,  eat  and  drink 
enough,  and  enough  is  as  good  as  a  feast. 

Spendall.    Gods  me  !  and  how  far  is  it  thither  ? 

Seagull.  Some  six  weeks  sail,  no  more,  with  any  in- 
different good  wind.  And  if  I  get  to  any  part  of  the 
coast  of  Africa,  I  '11  sail  thither  with  any  wind  ;  or  when 
I  come  to  Cape  Finisterre,  there  's  a  fore-right  wind  con- 
tinual wafts  us  till  we  come  to  Virginia.  See,  our  col- 
onel 's  come. 

Enter  Sir  Petronel  Flash  with  his  followers. 

Sir  Petronel.  We  '11  have  our  provided  supper  brought 
aboard  Sir  Francis  Drake's  ship  that  hath  compassed 
the  world,  where  with  full  cups  and  banquets  we  will  do 
sacrifice  for  a  prosperous  voyage.1 

The  great  popularity  of  this  play,  both  on  the 
stage  and  in  print,  —  for  it  went  through  four 
editions  between  September  and  Christmas,  —  is 
an  indication  of  the  general  curiosity  felt  about 
Virginia.  The  long  war  with  Spain  had  lately 
been  brought  to  an  end  by  the  treaty  of  1604.  It 
had  left  Spain  so  grievously  weakened  that  the 
work  of  encroaching  upon  her  American  demesnes 
was  immeasurably  easier  than  in  the  days  when 
Hawkins  began  it  and  Elizabeth  connived  at  it.  In 
a  cipher  despatch  from  the  Spanish  am- 
bassador Zuiiiga  to  his  sovereign,  Philip  report  to 
III.,  dated  London,  March  16,  1606,  * 
N.  S.,  mention  is  made  of  an  unpalatable  scheme 
of  the  English  :  "  They  also  propose  to  do  another 
1  The  Ancient  British  Drama,  London,  1810,  vol.  ii. 


60      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

thing,  which  is  to  send  five  or  six  hundred  men, 
private  individuals  of  this  kingdom,  to  people  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Indies,  close  to  Florida.  They  sent 
to  that  country  some  small  number  of  men  in 
years  gone  by,  and  having  afterwards  sent  again, 
they  found  a  part  of  them  alive."  :  In  this  refer- 
ence to  White's  colony  the  Spaniard  is  of  course 
mistaken ;  no  living  remnant  was  ever  found.  He 
goes  on  to  say  that  the  principal  leader  in  this 
business  is  Sir  John  Popham,  Lord  Chief  Justice 
of  England,  who  is  a  terrible  Puritan ;  and  when 
reminded  that  this  enterprise  is  an  encroachment 
upon  Spanish  territory  and  a  violation  of  the 
treaty,  this  astute  judge  says  that  he  is  only  un- 
dertaking it  in  order  to  clear  England  of  thieves 
and  get  them  drowned  in  the  sea.  I  have  not  yet 
complained  of  this  to  the  king,  says  Zuniga,  but 
I  shall  do  so. 

It  was  very  soon  after  this  despatch,  on  April 
10,  O.  S.,  that  James  I.  issued  the  charter  under 
which   England's  first  permanent  colony 
of  Virginia,    was  established.     This  memorable  docu- 
ment begins  by  defining  the  territorial 
limits    of  Virginia,  which    is  declared  to  extend 
from  the  34th  to   the  45th   parallel  of   latitude, 
and  from  the  seashore  one  hundred  miles  inland. 
In  a  second  charter,  issued  three  years  later,  Vir- 
ginia is  described  as  extending  from  sea  to  sea, 
that  is,  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Pacific.    It 
is  not  likely  that  the  king  and  his  advisers  under- 
stood the  westward  extension  of  the  grant,  as  here 
specified,  to  be  materially  different  from  that  men- 
1  Brown's  Genesis,  i.  46. 


ILLVSTRI   VIRO, DOMINO    PHILlfPO  S1DN/S.O 
MICHAEL   LOK  CJVIS   LONDINENS1S 
HANC    CHAKTAM  DEDICABAT 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     61 

tioned  in  the  first  charter.  The  width  of  the  con- 
tinent between  Chesapeake  Bay  and  the  valley  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  was  supposed  to  be  no  greater 
than  from  one  to  two  hundred  miles.  It  is  true 
that  before  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
expeditions  of  Soto  and  Coronado  had  proved  the 
existence  of  a  continuous  mass  of  land  from  Flor- 
ida to  California,  but  many  geographers  believed 
that  this  continental  mass  terminated  at  the  40th 
parallel  or  even  some  degrees  lower,  and  that  its 
northern  coast  was  washed  by  an  enormous  bay  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  called  on  old  maps  Thgoseaof 
the  Sea  of  Verrazano.  The  coast  land  Verrazano-" 
from  Virginia  to  Labrador  was  regarded  as  a  thin 
strip  separating  the  two  oceans  after  somewhat  the 
same  fashion  as  Central  America,  and  hence  the 
mouths  and  lower  reaches  of  such  broad  rivers  as 
the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware  were  mistaken  for 
straits.  After  one  has  traced  the  slow  develop- 
ment of  knowledge  through  the  curious  mingling 
of  fact  with  fancy  in  the  maps  of  Baptista  Agnese 
published  in  1536,  and  that  of  Sebastian  Miinster 
in  1540,  down  to  the  map  which  Michael  Lok 
made  for  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  1582,  he  will  have 
no  difficulty  in  understanding  either  the  language 
of  the  early  charters  or  the  fact  that  such  a  navi- 
gator as  Henry  Hudson  should  about  this  time 
have  entered  New  York  harbour  in  the  hope  of 
coming  out  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean  within  a  few 
days.  Without  such  study  of  the  old  maps  the 
story  often  becomes  incomprehensible. 

As  for  the  northern  and  southern  limits  of  Vir- 
ginia, they  were  evidently  prescribed  with  a  view 


62      OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

to  arousing  as  little  antagonism  as  possible  on  the 
Northern  Par^  °^  Spain  and  France.  Expressed  in 
1^  nmita'of  terms  of  the  modern  map,  the  34th  paral- 
virginia.  ^  cuts  through  the  mOuth  of  the  Cape 

Fear  River  and  passes  just  south  of  Columbia, 
the  capital  of  South  Carolina ;  while  the  45th  par- 
allel is  that  which  divides  Vermont  from  Canada. 
English  settlers  were  thus  kept  quite  clear  of  the 
actual  settlements  of  Spaniards  in  Florida,  and 
would  not  immediately  be  brought  into  collision 
with  the  French  friars  and  fur-traders  who  were 
beginning  to  find  their  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  Virginia  thus  designated  was  to  be  open 
for  colonization  by  two  joint-stock  companies,  of 
which  the  immediate  members  and  such 

The  twin  111  •«  -11  •          i 

joint-stock     as  should  participate  with  them  in  the 

companies,  .  -,         i  t    t  11     t  • 

and  the  enterprise  should  be  called  respectively 
the  First  Colony  and  the  Second  Col- 
ony. The  First  Colony  was  permitted  to  occupy 
the  territory  between  the  34th  and  the  41st  par- 
allels, while  the  Second  Colony  was  permitted  to 
occupy  the  territory  between  the  38th  and  the  45th 
parallels.  It  will  thus  be  observed  that  the  strip 
between  the  38th  and  41st  parallels  was  open  to 
both,  but  it  was  provided  that  neither  colony 
should  make  a  plantation  or  settlement  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  any  settlement  already  begun 
by  the  other.  The  elaborate  ingenuity  of  this 
arrangement  is  characteristic  of  James's  little  de- 
vice-loving mind ;  its  purpose,  no  doubt,  was  to 
quicken  the  proceedings  by  offering  to  reward 
whichever  colony  should  be  first  in  the  field  with 
a  prior  claim  upon  the  intervening  region.  The 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     63 

practical  result  was  the  division  of  the  Virginia 
territory  into  three  strips  or  zones.  The  southern 
zone,  starting  from  the  coast  comprised  between 
the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  River  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Potomac,  was  secured  to  the  First  Colony. 
The  northern  zone,  starting  from  the  coast  com- 
prised between  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  Long  Island 
Sound,  was  secured  to  the  Second  Colony.  The 
middle  zone,  from  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Hud- 
son River  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  was 
left  open  to  competition  between  the  two,  with  a 
marked  advantage  in  favour  of  the  one  that  should 
first  come  to  be  self-supporting. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that,  although  the  actual 
course  taken  by  the  colonization  of  North  America 
was  very  different  from  what  was  contemplated  in 
this  charter,  nevertheless  the  division  of  our  terri- 
tory into  the  three  zones  just  mentioned  Theti^ 
has  happened  to  coincide  with  a  real  and  American 
very  important  division  that  exists  to-day.  hifltory- 
Of  our  original  thirteen  states,  those  of  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Connecticut  were  founded  in  the  northern  zone, 
aad  within  it  their  people  have  spread  through 
central  New  York  into  the  Far  West.  In  the 
middle  zone,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  northerly 
towns  upon  the  Hudson,  were  made  the  beginnings 
of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, and  Maryland.  In  the  southern  zone  were 
planted  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and -Georgia.  Be- 
tween the  three  groups  the  differences  in  local 
government  have  had  much  significance  in  the 
history  of  the  American  people.  In  the  northern 


64     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

zone  the  township  system  of  local  government  has 
prevailed,  and  in  the  southern  zone  the  county 
system,  while  in  the  middle  zone  the  mixed  town- 
ship -  and  -  county  system  has  exhibited  various 
phases,  here  and  there  reaching  a  very  high  stage 
of  development.1 

To  return  to  King  James's  charter,  the  govern- 
ment which  it  provided  for  his  two  American  colo- 
nies was  such  as  he  believed  would  prove 
of  the  two      simple  and  efficient.     A  Royal  Council 

colonies.  „   „.       .    .  .      .  .      ,. 

01  Virginia,  consisting  or  thirteen  per- 
sons, was  created  in  London,  and  its  members  were 
to  be  appointed  by  the  king.  It  was  to  exercise  a 
general  supervision  over  the  two  colonies,  but  the 
direct  management  of  affairs  in  each  colony  was 
to  be  entrusted  to  local  resident  councils.  Each 
local  council  was  to  consist  of  thirteen  persons,  of 
whom  one  was  to  be  president,  with  a  casting  vote. 
The  council  in  London  was  to  give  the  wheels  of 
government  a  start  by  appointing  the  first  mem- 
bers of  the  two  colonial  councils  and  designating 
that  member  of  each  who  should  serve  as  presi- 
dent for  the  first  year.  After  that  the  vehicle  was 
to  run  of  itself ;  the  colonial  council  was  to  elect 
its  president  each  year,  and  could  depose  him  in 
case  of  misconduct ;  it  could  also  fill  its  own  vacan- 
cies, arising  from  the  resignation,  deposition,  de- 
parture, or  death  of  any  of  its  members.  Power  was 
given  to  the  colonial  council  to  coin  money  for 
trade  between  the  colonies  and  with  the  natives,  to 
invite  and  carry  over  settlers,  to  drive  out  intrud- 
ers, to  punish  malefactors,  and  to  levy  and  collect 
1  See  my  Civil  Government  in  the  United  States,  chap.  iv. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     65 

duties  upon  divers  imported  goods.  All  lands 
within  the  two  colonies  were  to  be  held  in  free 
and  common  socage,  like  the  demesnes  of  the 
manor  of  East  Greenwich,  in  the  county  of  Kent ; 
and  the  settlers  and  their  children  forever  were 
to  enjoy  all  the  liberties,  franchises,  and  immu- 
nities enjoyed  by  Englishmen  in  England,  —  a 
clause  which  was  practically  nullified  by  the  fail- 
ure to  provide  for  popular  elections  or  any  expres- 
sion whatever  of  public  opinion.  The  authority  of 
the  colonial  councils  was  supreme  within  the  colo- 
nies, but  their  acts  were  liable  to  a  veto  from  the 
Crown. 

This  first  English  attempt  at  making  an  outline 
of  government  for  an  English  colony  can  never 
fail  to  be  of  interest.  It  was  an  experimental 
treatment  of  a  wholly  new  and  unfamiliar  problem, 
and,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  it  was  soon  proved 
to  be  a  very  crude  experiment,  needing  much  mod- 
ification. For  the  present  we  are  concerned  with 
the  names  and  characters  of  the  persons  to  whom 
this  ever-memorable  charter  was  granted. 

The  persons  interested  in  the  First  Colony,  in 
that  southern  zone  which  had  been  the  scene  of 

Raleigh's  original  attempts,  were  repre- 

j  u  •  M-  £  T         Persons 

sented  by  some  eminent  citizens  01  Lion-  chiefly  inter- 
don  and  its  neighbourhood,  so  that  they  First  coi- 
came  afterward  to  be  commonly  known  London 
as  the  London  Company.     The   names 
mentioned  in  the  charter  are  four :  the  Rev.  Rich- 
ard Hakluyt,  who  had  lately  been  made  a  preben- 
dary  of  "Westminster;    Sir    Thomas   Gates,    Sir 
George  Somers,  and  Captain  Edward  Maria  Wing- 


66      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

field.  Gates  was  a  Devonshire  soldier  who  had  been 
knighted  in  1596  for  brave  conduct  in  the  battle 
of  Cadiz,  and  had  afterward  served  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Somers  was  a  native  of  Dorsetshire,  and 
had  received  knighthood  for  eminent  services  as 
commander  in  several  naval  expeditions  against 
the  Spaniards.  Captain  Edward  Maria  Wing- 
field,  of  Stoneley  Priory,  in  Huntingdonshire,  was 
of  a  very  ancient  and  honourable  Catholic  family ; 
Queen  Mary  Tudor  and  Cardinal  Pole  had  been 
sponsors  for  his  father,  which  accounts  for  the 
feminine  middle  name ;  he  had  served  in  the 
Netherlands  and  in  Ireland  ;  among  his  near  rela- 
tives, or  connections  by  marriage,  were  Shake- 
speare's Earl  of  Southampton,  the  lords  Carew 
and  Hervey,  and  John  Winthrop,  of  Groton,  after- 
wards governor  of  Massachusetts.  But  the  name 
which,  after  Hakluyt's,  has  been  perhaps  most 
closely  identified  with  the  London  Company  is 
that  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  the  eminent  London 
citizen  who  was  its  first  treasurer.  From  the  time 
of  his  student  days  at  Oxford  Smith  felt  a  strong 
interest  in  "  western  planting,"  and  we  have  al- 
ready met  with  his  name  on  the  list  of  those  to 
whom  Kaleigh  in  1589  assigned  his  trading  inter- 
ests in  Virginia.  He  was  knighted  in  1596  for 
gallantry  at  Cadiz,  was  alderman  and  sheriff  of 
London,  and  first  governor  of  the  East  India 
Company  in  1600.  He  was  at  various  times  a 
member  of  Parliament,  served  as  ambassador  to 
Russia,  and  was  especially  forward  in  promoting 
Arctic  discovery.  He  was  one  of  those  who  sent 
Henry  Hudson  in  1610  upon  his  last  fatal  voyage, 


A   DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.      67 

and  it  was  under  his  auspices  that  William  Baffin 
was  sailing  in  1616  when  he  discovered  that  re- 
mote strait  leading  to  the  Polar  Sea  which  has  ever 
since  been  known  as  Smith's  Sound.  Few  men  of 
that  time  contributed  more  largely  in  time  and 
money  to  the  London  Company  than  Sir  Thomas 
Smith. 

The  persons  interested  in  the  Second  Colony,  in 
that  northern  zone  to  which  attention  had  recently 
been  directed  by  the  voyages  of  Gosnold, 
Prinsr,  and  Wey mouth,  were  represented  chiefly  inter- 

,       . .,       ,         ested  in  the 

by  certain  gentlemen  connected  with  the  second  coi- 
western  counties,  especially  by  Sir  Fer-  Plymouth 
dinando  Gorges,  governor  of  the  garrison 
at  Plymouth  in  Devonshire,  who  was  afterwards 
to  be  Lord  Proprietor  of  the  Province  of  Maine, 
and  to  play  a  part  of  some  importance  in  the  early 
history  of  New  England.  This  company  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Plymouth  Company.  The  four 
names  mentioned  in  the  charter  are  Raleigh  Gil- 
bert, William  Parker,  Thomas  Hanham,  and 
George  Popham.  The  name  of  the  first  of  these 
gentlemen  tells  its  own  story ;  he  was  a  younger 
son  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  and  named  for  his 
uncle.  William  Parker  was  son  and  heir  of  Lord 
Morley,  and  commonly  known  by  his  courtesy  title 
as  Lord  Monteagle.  It  was  he  who  received  the 
anonymous  letter  which  led  to  the  detection  of  the 
Gunpowder  Plot,  in  which  his  wife's  brother  was 
concerned.  George  Popham  was  a  nephew,1  and 
Thomas  Hanham  was  a  grandson,  of  Sir  John 

1  He  is  commonly  but  incorrectly  called  the  brother  of  the 
Chief  Justice. 


68      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Popham,  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench. 
They  were  a  Somersetshire  family.  In  securing 
the  charter  incorporating  the  London  and  Plym- 
outh companies  nobody  was  more  active  or  in- 
fluential than  the  chief  justice,  whom  we  have 
seen  singled  out  for  mention  by  the  Spanish  am- 
bassador. 

Among  other  persons  especially  interested  in 
the  colonization  of  Virginia,  one  should  mention 
other  emi-  George  Abbot,  Master  of  University 
fntereSta  College,  Oxford,  one  of  the  translators 
the  scheme.  of  tlie  common  version  of  the  Bible, 

afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ;  and  Sir 
Julius  Caesar,  member  of  Parliament  for  West- 
minster and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  son  of 
Julius  Caesar  Adelmare,  Queen  Elizabeth's  Italian 
physician  ;  his  strong  interest  in  maritime  discov- 
ery and  western  planting  may  have  been  due  to 
the  fact  that,  after  the  death  of  his  father  and 
while  he  was  still  a  child,  his  mother  married  the 
celebrated  geographer,  Dr.  Michael  Lok.  We 
should  not  forget  Sir  Maurice  Berkeley,  two  of 
whose  sons  we  shall  meet  hereafter,  one  of  them, 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  most  conspicuous  figure 
among  the  royal  governors  of  Virginia,  the  other, 
Lord  Berkeley  of  Stratton,  one  of  the  proprietors 
of  Carolina.  An  important  subscriber  to  the  com- 
pany was  Sir  Anthony  Ashley,  grandfather  of  the 
famous  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  who  was  also  one  of 
the  Carolina  proprietors  ;  another  was  William 
Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  nephew  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney  and  devoted  friend  of  Shakespeare ;  an- 
other was  Sir  Henry  Gary,  father  of  the  pure  and 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     69 

high-minded  statesman,  Lucius,  Viscount  Falk- 
land. Of  more  importance  for  Virginian  history 
than  any  of  the  foregoing  was  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
son  of  Edwin  Sandys,  Archbishop  of  York.  Sir 
Edwin  was  a  pupil  of  the  great  Richard  Hooker, 
and  learned  from  him  principles  of  toleration  little 
understood  in  that  age.  After  his  travels  on  the 
continent  he  published  in  1605  a  treatise  entitled 
"  Europae  Speculum,  a  relation  of  the  state  of  reli- 
gion in  ...  these  Western  Parts  of  the  World ;  " 
its  liberal  opinions  gave  so  much  offence  that  about 
four  months  after  its  publication  it  was  burned  in 
St.  Paul's  Churchyard  by  order  of  the  Court  of 
High  Commission.  At  that  very  time  Sandys  was 
one  of  the  most  admired  and  respected  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  was  on  his  motion 
that  the  House  first  began  keeping  a  regular  jour- 
nal of  its  transactions.  He  was  associated  with 
Sir  Francis  Bacon  in  drawing  up  the  remonstrance 
against  King  James's  behaviour  toward  Parlia- 
ment. In  later  years  he  was  an  active  friend  of 
the  Mayflower  Pilgrims  and  gave  them  valuable 
aid  in  setting  out  upon  their  enterprise.  But  his 
chief  title  to  historic  fame  consists  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  under  his  auspices  and  largely  through  his 
exertions  that  free  representative  government  was 
first  established  in  America.  How  this  came  about 
will  be  shown  in  a  future  chapter.  For  the  pres- 
ent we  may  note  that  at  least  half  a  dozen  of  his 
immediate  family  were  subscribers  to  the  London 
Company ;  one  of  his  brothers  had  for  godfather 
Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  of  Charlecote  Hall,  the  Puritan 
knight  who  figures  as  Justice  Shallow  in  the 


70      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

"  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor ; "  there  were  at  least 
two  intermarriages  between  this  Sandys  family  and 
that  of  Lawrence  Washington,  of  Sulgrave,  ances- 
tor of  George  Washington.  It  is  pleasant  to  trace 
the  various  connections,  near  and  remote,  whether 
in  blood-relationship  or  in  community  of  interests 
and  purposes,  between  the  different  personages  of 
a  great  era  that  has  passed  away ;  for  the  more  we 
come  to  discern  in  its  concrete  details  the  intricate 
web  of  associations  running  yi  all  directions  among 
the  men  and  events  of  the  vanished  age,  the  more 
vividly  is  that  age  reproduced  in  our  minds,  the 
closer  does  it  come  to  the  present,  the  more  keenly 
does  it  enlist  our  sympathies.  As  we  contemplate 
the  goodly  array  here  brought  forward  of  person- 
ages concerned  in  the  first  planting  of  an  English 
nation  in  America,  the  inquiry  as  to  what  sort  of 
men  they  were,  for  intelligence  and  character,  is 
one  that  can  be  answered  with  satisfaction. 

In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  charter, 
both  London  and  Plymouth  companies  made  haste 
to  organize  expeditions  for  planting  their  colonies 
in  the  New  World.  The  London  Company  was 
the  first  to  be  ready,  but  before  we  follow  its  ad- 
ventures a  word  about  the  Plymouth  Company 
seems  called  for.  On  the  last  day  of  May,  1607, 
two  ships  —  the  Gift  of  God,  commanded  by 
George  Popham,  and  the  Mary  and  John, 

Expedition  *  T»    i    •     i        /TII 

of  the  piym-  commanded    by   Kaleigh    Gilbert  —  set 

outh  Com-  TVI  i         •  i 

pany ;  fail-     sail  f rom  Plymouth  with  a  hundred  set- 

ure  of  the  . 

Popham        tiers.    In  August,  after  some  exploration 

of  the  coast,  they  selected  a  site  by  the 

mouth  of  the  Kennebec  River,  and  built  there  a 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     71 

rude  fort  with  twelve  guns,  a  storehouse  and 
church,  and  a  few  cabins.  They  searched  diligently 
but  in  vain  for  traces  of  gold  or  silver  ;  the  winter 
brought  with  it  much  hardship,  their  storehouse 
was  burned  down,  and  Captain  Popham  died.  In 
the  spring  a  ship  which  arrived  with  supplies  from 
England  brought  the  news  of  two  deaths,  that  of 
Chief  Justice  Popham,  and  that  of  Gilbert's  elder 
brother,  to  whose  estates  he  was  heir.  The  enter- 
prise was  forthwith  abandoned  and  all  returned 
to  England  with  most  discouraging  reports.  The 
further  career  of  the  Plymouth  Company  does 
not  at  present  concern  us.  It  never  achieved  any 
notable  success.  When  the  colonization  of  New 
England  was  at  length  accomplished  it  was  in  a 
manner  that  was  little  dreamed  of  by  the  king  who 
granted  or  the  men  who  obtained  the  charter  of 
1606. 

The  expedition  fitted  out  by  the  London  Com- 
pany was  in  readiness  a  little  before  Christmas, 
1606,  and  was  placed  under  command  of  Elpedition 
Captain  Christopher  Newport,  the  stout  donhco^-n" 
sailor   who    had   brought   in   the   great  P*"7' 
Spanish  carrack  for  Raleigh.     He  was  one  of  the 
most  skilful  and  highly  esteemed  officers  in  the 
English  navy.     Of  the  three  ships  that  were  to 
go  to  Virginia  his  was  the  Susan  Constant.     The 
Godspeed  was  commanded  by  Bartholomew  Gos- 
nold,  and  the  Discovery  by  John  Ratcliffe.     Be- 
sides their  crews,  the  three  ships  carried  105  col- 
onists.    By  some  queer  freak  of  policy  the  names 
of  the  persons  appointed  to  the  colonial  council 
were   carried  in  a  sealed   box,  not  to  be  opened 


72     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

until  the  little  squadron  should  arrive  at  its  des- 
tination. An  important  paper  of  instructions  was 
drawn  up  for  the  use  of  the  officers  on  landing. 
Hakluyt  was  commonly  called  upon  to  prepare 
such  documents,  and  the  style  of  this  one  sounds 
like  him.  The  suggestions  are  those  of  a  man 
who  understood  the  business.1 

"  When  it  shall  please  God  to  send  you  on  the 

coast  of  Virginia,  you  shall  do  your  best  endeavour 

to  find  out  a  safe  port  in  the  entrance 

Instructions         -  .  .  . 

totnecoio-    oi  some  navigable  river,  making  choice 

nists. 

of  such  a  one  as  runneth  farthest  into 
the  land.  .  .  .  When  you  have  made  choice  of  the 
river  on  which  you  mean  to  settle,  be  not  hasty  in 
landing  your  victuals  and  munitions,  but  first  let 
Captain  Newport  discover  how  far  that  river  may 
be  found  navigable,  that  you  make  election  of  the 
strongest,  most  wholesome  and  fertile  place,  for  if 
you  make  many  removes,  besides  the  loss  of  time, 
you  shall  greatly  spoil  your  victuals  and  your 
casks. 

"But  if  you  choose  your  place  so  far  up  as  a 
bark  of  50  tons  will  float,  then  you  may  lay  all 

your  provisions  ashore  with  ease,  and  the 

Whereto         ;  ,  ' 

choose  a  site   better  receive  the  trade  of  all  the  coun- 

for  a  town.  .  -111  -\  i 

tries  about  you  in  the  land  ;  and  such  a 
place  you  may  perchance  find  a  hundred  miles  from 
the  river's  mouth,  and  the  further  up  the  better, 
for  if  you  sit  down  near  the  entrance,  except  it  be 
in  some  island  that  is  strong  by  nature,  an  enemy 
that  may  approach  you  on  even  ground  may  easily 

1  The  original  is  in  the  MS.  Minutes  of  the  London  Company,  in 
the  Library  of  Congress,  2  vols.  folio. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     73 

pull  you  out ;  and  [i.  e.  but]  if  he  be  driven  to 
seek  you  a  hundred  miles  the  [i.  e.  in]  land  in 
boats,  you  shall  from  both  sides  of  the  river  where 
it  is  narrowest,  so  beat  them  with  your  muskets  as 
they  shall  never  be  able  to  prevail  against  you." 

That  the  enemy  in  the  writer's  mind  was  the 
Spaniard  is  clearly  shown  by  the  next  paragraph, 
which  refers  expressly  to  the  massacre  of  the  Hu- 
guenot colony  in  Florida  and  the  vengeance  taken 
by  Dominique  de  Gourgues. 

"  And  to  the  end  that  you  be  not  surprised  as  the 
French  were  in  Florida  by  Melindus  [i.  e.  Menen- 
dez]  and  the  Spaniard  in  the  same  place 

Precautions 

by  the  French,  you  shall  do  well  to  make  against  a 

surprise. 

this  double  provision  :  first  erect  a  little 
store  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  that  may  lodge 
some  ten  men,  with  whom  you  shall  leave  a  light 
boat,  that  when  any  fleet  shall  be  in  sight  they 
may  come  with  speed  to  give  you  warning.  Sec- 
ondly, you  must  in  no  case  suffer  any  of  the  native 
people  to  inhabit  between  you  and  the  sea-coast, 
for  you  cannot  carry  yourselves  so  towards  them 
but  they  will  grow  discontented  with  your  habita- 
tion, and  be  ready  to  guide  and  assist  any  nation 
that  shall  come  to  invade  you ;  and  if  you  neglect 
this  you  neglect  your  safety. 

"  You  must  observe  if  you  can  whether  the  river 
on  which  you  plant  doth  spring  out  of  mountains 
or  out  of  lakes.     If  it  be  out  of  any  lake  You  must 
the  passage  to  the  other  sea  [i.  e.  the  th^p°adftc 
Pacific  Ocean]  will  be  the  more  easy;  Ocean- 
and  [it]  is  like  enough  that  out  of  the  same  lake 
you  shall  find  some  [rivers]  spring  which  run  the 


74     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

contrary  way  toward  the  East  India  Sea,  for  the 
great  and  famous  rivers  of  Volga,  Tanais,  and 
Dwina  have  three  heads  near  joined,  and  yet  the 
one  falleth  into  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  other  into 
the  Euxine  Sea,  and  the  third  into  the  Polonian 
Sea. 

"...  You  must  have  great  care  not  to  offend 
the  naturals,  if  you  can  eschew  it,  and  employ  some 
DO  not  of-  f ew  °^  y°ur  company  to  trade  with  them 
nl'tfvesfor  f°r  corn  an(l  all  other  lasting  victuals  .  .  . , 
&£*  and  this  you  must  do  before  that  they 
them*  perceive  you  mean  to  plant  among  them. 

.  .  .  Your  discoverers  that  pass  over  land  with 
hired  guides  must  look  well  to  them  that  they  slip 
not  from  them,  and  for  more  assurance  let  them 
take  a  compass  with  them,  and  write  down  how  far 
they  go  upon  every  point  of  the  compass,  for  that 
country  having  no  way  or  path,  if  that  your  guides 
run  from  you  in  the  great  woods  or  desert,  you 
shall  hardly  ever  find  a  passage  back.  And  how 
weary  soever  your  soldiers  be,  let  them  never  trust 
the  country  people  with  the  carriage  of  their  weap- 
ons, for  if  they  run  from  you  with  your  shot  which 
they  only  fear,  they  will  easily  kill  them  \i.  e.  you] 
all  with  their  arrows.  And  whensoever  any  of 
yours  shoots  before  them,  be  sure  that  they  be 
chosen  out  of  your  best  marksmen,  for  if  they  see 
your  learners  miss  what  they  aim  at,  they  will 
think  the  weapon  not  so  terrible,  and  thereby  will 
be  bold  to  assault  you. 

"  Above  all  things,  do  not  advertise  the  killing 
of  any  of  your  men  [so]  that  the  country  people 
may  know  it.  If  they  perceive  that  they  are  but 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     75 

common  men,  and  that  with  the  loss  of  many  of 
theirs   they   may  diminish  any  part   of  Conceai 
yours,  they  will  make  many  adventures  yr0°™  J^™. 
upon  you.  .  .  .  You  shall  do  well  also  ne88e8' 
not  to  let  them  see  or  know  of  your  sick  men,  if 
you  have  any.  .  .  . 

"  You  must  take  especial  care  that  you  choose  a 
seat  for  habitation  that  shall  not  be  overburthened 
with  woods  near  your  town,  for  all  the 

111  iii  i  Beware  of 

men  you  have  shall  not  be  able  to  cleanse  woodland 

.  coverts. 

twenty  acres  a  year,  besides  that  it  may 

serve  for  a  covert  for  your  enemies  round  about. 

"  Neither  must  you  plant  in  a  low  or  moist  place, 
because  it  will  prove  unhealthful.  You  shall  judge 
of  the  good  air  by  the  people,  for  some  Avoid  mala. 
part  of  that  coast  where  the  lands  are  "*• 
low  have  their  people  blear  eyed,  and  with  swollen 
bellies  and  legs,  but  if  the  naturals  be  strong  and 
clean  made  it  is  a  true  sign  of  a  wholesome  soil. 

"  You  must  take  order  to  draw  up  the  pinnace 
that  is  left  with  you  under  the  fort,  and  Guard 
take  her  sails  and  anchors  ashore,  all  but  desertion. 
a  small   kedge  to  ride  by,  lest  some  ill-disposed 
persons  slip  away  with  her." 

The  document  contains  many  other  excellent 
suggestions  and  directions,  two  or  three  of  which 
will  suffice  for  the  purposes  of  our  narrative. 

"  Seeing  order  is  at  the  same  price  with  confu- 
sion it  shall  be  advisably  done  to  set  your  houses 
even  and  by  a  line,  that  your  streets 

i  11  11  11  •     -i     Build  your 

may  have  a  good  breadth  and  be  carried  town  care- 

,   fully- 
square    about   your   market  -  place,    and 

every  street's  end  opening  into  it,  that  from  thence 


76      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

with  a  few  field -pieces  you  may  command  every 
street  throughout.  .  .  . 

"  You  shall  do  well  to  send  a  perfect  relation  by 
Captain  Newport  of  all  that  is  done,  what  height 
DO  not  send  JOVL  are  seated,  how  far  into  the  land, 
dTs^uraging  what  commodities  you  find,  what  soil, 
woods  and  their  several  kinds,  and  so  of 
all  other  things  else,  to  advertise  particularly ; 
and  to  suffer  no  man  to  return  but  by  passport 
from  the  President  and  Council,  nor  to  write  [in] 
any  letter  of  anything  that  may  discourage  others. 

"  Lastly  and  chiefly,  the  way  to  prosper  and 
achieve  good  success  is  to  make  yourselves  all  of 
one  mind  for  the  good  of  your  country  and  your 
own,  and  to  serve  and  fear  God,  the  Giver  of  all 
goodness,  for  every  plantation  which  our  Heavenly 
Father  hath  not  planted  shall  be  rooted  out." 

The  allusion  to  the  Florida  tragedy,  in  this 
charming  paper,  was  by  no  means  ill  considered. 
For  in  March,  1607,  the  King  of  Spain  wrote  from 
Madrid  to  Zuniga  in  London  as  follows :  "  You 
will  report  to  me  what  the  English  are  doing  in 
the  matter  of  Virginia ;  and  if  the  plan 

What  Spain  .        &  : f 

thought  of  progresses  which  they  contemplated,  ot 
sending  men  there  and  ships  ;  and  there- 
upon it  will  be  taken  into  consideration  here  what 
steps  had  best  be  taken  to  prevent  it."  l  A  few 
days  after  this  letter  Philip  III.  held  a  meeting 
with  his  council  to  discuss  measures  which  boded 
no  good  to  Captain  Newport's  little  company.  We 
do  not  know  just  what  was  said  and  done,  but  we 
hardly  need  to  be  told  that  the  temper  of  Spain 
1  Brown's  Genesis,  i.  91. 


A   DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     77 

was  notably  changed  in  the  forty-two  years  since 
Menendez's  deed  of  blood.  How  to  ruin  the  Vir- 
ginia enterprise  without  coming  to  blows  with  Eng- 
land was  now  the  humbler  problem  for  Spain  to 
solve,  and  it  was  not  an  easy  one. 

Meanwhile  Newport's  little  fleet  was  half  way 
on  its  voyage.     It  started  down  the  Thames  from 
Blackwall  on  the  19th  of  December,  but  by  reason 
of  "  unprosperous  winds  "  it  was  obliged  A  poet  lau. 
to  keep  its  moorings  "all  in  the  Downs,"  ™ein>ief^e~ 
as  in  the  ballad  of  "  Black-eyed  Susan,"  mg> 
until  New  Year's  Day,  1607,  when  it  finally  got 
under  way.     A  farewell   blessing  was  wafted  to 
them  in  Michael  Drayton's  quaint  stanzas : J  — 

"  You  brave  heroic  minds, 
Worthy  your  country's  name, 

That  honour  still  pursue, 

Go  and  subdue, 
Whilst  loitering  hinds 
Lurk  here  at  home  with  shame. 

"  Britons,  you  stay  too  long1, 
Quickly  aboard  bestow  you, 
And  with  a  merry  gale 
Swell  your  stretched  sail, 
With  vows  as  strong 
As  the  winds  that  blow  you. 

"  Your  course  securely  steer, 
West  and  by  South  forth  keep ; 

Rocks,  lee  shores,  nor  shoals, 

When  ^Eolus  scowls, 
You  need  not  fear, 
So  absolute  the  deep. 

1  Drayton's   Works,  London,  1620.     Drayton  was  afterwards 
poet  laureate. 


78     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

"  And  cheerfully  at  sea 
Success  you  still  entice, 

To  get  the  pearl  and  gold, 

And  ours  to  hold 
VIRGINIA, 
Earth's  only  paradise  ! 

*'  Where  nature  hath  in  store 
Fowl,  venison,  and  fish  ; 

And  the  fruitfull'st  soil 

Without  your  toil, 
Three  harvests  more, 
All  greater  than  you  wish. 

"  And  the  amhitious  vine 
Crowns  with  his  purple  mass 

The  cedar  reaching  high 

To  kiss  the  sky, 
The  cypress,  pine, 
And  useful  sassafras, 

"  To  whose,  the  Golden  Age 
Still  nature's  laws  doth  give  ; 

No  other  cares  that  tend, 

But  them  to  defend 
From  -winter's  age, 
That  long  there  doth  not  live. 

"  When  as  the  luscious  smell 
Of  that  delicious  land, 

Above  the  seas  that  flows 
The  clear  wind  throws 
Your  hearts  to  swell, 
Approaching  the  dear  strand. 

"  In  kenning  of  the  shore 
(Thanks  to  God  first  given) 

O  you,  the  happiest  men 

Be  frolic  then ; 
Let  cannons  roar, 
Frighting  the  wide  heaven. 


A  DISCOURSE  OF  WESTERN  PLANTING.     79 

"  And  in  regions  farre, 
Such  heroes  bring1  ye  forth 

As  those  from  whom  we  came  ; 

And  plant  our  name 
Under  that  star 
Not  known  unto  our  north. 

"  And  as  there  plenty  grows 
Of  laurel  everywhere, 

Apollo's  sacred  tree, 

You  it  may  see, 
A  poet's  brows 
To  crown,  that  may  sing  there. 

"  Thy  voyages  attend, 
Industrious  Hakluyt, 

Whose  reading  shall  inflame 

Men  to  seek  fame, 
And  much  commend 
To  after  times  thy  wit." 

With  such  oinen  sailed  from  merry  England 
the  men  who  were  to  make  the  beginnings  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  What  they  found  and 
how  they  fared  in  the  paradise  of  Virginia  shall  be 
the  theme  of  our  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  in. 

THE   LAND  OF   THE   POWHATANS. 

WHILE  Captain  Christopher  Newport,  with  the 
ships  of  the  London  Company,  is  still  in  mid- 
ocean,  and  the  seal  of  the  king's  casket  containing 
the  names  of  Virginia's  first  rulers  is  still  un- 
broken, we  may  pause  for  a  moment  in  our  narra- 
tive, to  bestow  a  few  words  upon  the  early  career 
of  the  personage  that  is  next  to  come  upon  the 
scene,  — -  a  man  whose  various  and  wild  adventures 
have  invested  the  homeliest  of  English  names  with 
Captain  a  romantic  interest  that  can  never  die. 

John  Smith.    The  jif  e  of  Captain  Jolm  Smith  readg  like 

a  chapter  from  "  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth."  It 
abounds  in  incidents  such  as  we  call  improbable  in 
novels,  although  precedents  enough  for  every  one  of 
them  may  be  found  in  real  life.  The  accumulation 
of  romantic  adventures,  in  the  career  of  a  single 
individual  may  sometimes  lend  an  air  of  exaggera- 
tion to  the  story ;  yet  in  the  genius  for  getting  into 
scrapes  and  coming  out  of  them  sound  and  whole, 
the  differences  between  people  are  quite  as  great 
as  the  differences  in  stature  and  complexion.  John 
Smith  evidently  had  a  genius  for  adventures,  and 
he  lived  at  a  time  when  one  would  often  meet  with 
things  such  as  nowadays  seldom  happen  in  civil- 
ized countries.  In  these  days  of  Pullman  cars 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.         81 

and  organized  police  we  are  liable  to  forget  the 
kind  of  perils  that  used  to  dog  men's  footsteps 
through  the  world.  The  romance  of  human  life 
has  by  no  means  disappeared,  but  it  has  somewhat 
changed  its  character  since  the  Elizabethan  age, 
and  is  apt  to  consist  of  different  kinds  of  incidents, 
so  that  the  present  generation  has  witnessed  a  ten- 
dency to  disbelieve  many  stories  of  the  older  time. 
In  the  case  of  John  Smith,  for  whose  early  life  we 
have  little  else  but  his  autobiography  to  go  by, 
much  incredulity  has  been  expressed.1  To  set  him 
down  as  an  arrant  braggadocio  would  seem  to  some 
critics  essential  to  their  reputation  for  sound  sense. 
Such  a  judgment,  however,  may  simply  show  that 
the  critic  has  failed  to  realize  all  the  conditions 
of  the  case.  Queer  things  could  happen  in  the 
Tudor  times.  Lord  Campbell  tells  us  that  Sir 
John  Popham,  when  he  was  a  law-student  in  the 
Middle  Temple,  used  after  nightfall  to  go  out  with 
his  pistols  and  take  purses  on  Hounslow  Heath, 
partly  to  show  that  he  was  a  young  man  of  spirit, 
partly  to  recruit  his  meagre  finances,  impaired  by 
riotous  living.2  This  amateur  highwayman  lived 
to  become  Chief  Justice  of  England.  The  age  in 
which  such  things  could  be  done  was  that  in  which 
John  Smith  grew  to  manhood. 

A  Latin  entry   in  the  parish  register  at  WiL 

1  Some  skepticism  was  manifested  by  one  of  Smith's  contem. 
poraries,  Thomas  Fuller,  who  says,  in  his  Worthies  of  England, 
"  It  sonndeth  much  to  the  diminution  of  his  deeds  that  he  alone. 
is  the  herald  to  publish  and  proclaim  them."     The  good  Fullet 
was  mistaken,  however.     Some  of  Smith's  most  striking  deads, 
as  we  shall  see,  were  first  proclaimed  by  others. 

2  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices,  L  210. 


82     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

loughby  in  Lincolnshire  shows  that  he  received 
infant  baptism  in  the  church  there  on  the  9th  of 
January,  1580.  After  the  death  of  his  parents, 
an  irrepressible  craving  for  adventure  led  him  at 
an  early  age  to  France,  where  he  served  as  a  sol- 
dier for  a  while  and  afterward  spent  three  years 
His  early  'in  *ne  Netherlands  fighting  against  the 
life-  Spaniards.  In  the  year  1600  he  re- 

turned to  Willoughby,  "where  within  a  short 
time,  being  glutted  with  too  much  company 
wherein  he  took  small  delight,  he  retired  himself 
into  a  little  woody  pasture  a  good  way  from  any 
town,  environed  with  many  hundred  acres  of 
woods.  Here  by  a  fair  brook  he  built  a  pavilion 
of  boughs  where  only  in  his  clothes  he  lay.  His 
study  was  Machiavelli's  Art  of  War  and  Marcus 
Aurelius;  his  exercise  a  good  horse,  with  lance 
and  ring ;  his  food  was  thought  to  be  more  of 
venison  than  anything  else."  l  However,  he  adds, 
these  hermit-like  pleasures  could  not  content  him 
long.  "  He  was  desirous  to  see  more  of  the  world, 
and  try  his  fortune  against  the  Turks;  both  la- 
menting and  repenting  to  have  seen  so  many 
Christians  slaughtering  one  another."  In  passing 
through  France  he  was  robbed  of  all  he  had  about 
him,  but  his  life  was  saved  by  a  peasant  who  found 
him  lying  in  the  forest,  half  dead  with  hunger  and 
grief  and  nearly  frozen.  He  made  his  way  to 
Marseilles,  and  embarked  with  a  company  of  pil- 
grims for  the  Levant ;  but  a  violent  storm  arose, 

1  This  sketch  of  Smith's  early  life  is  based  upon  his  True 
Travels,  etc.,  in  his  Works,  edited  by  Edward  Arber,  Birming- 
ham, 1884,  pp.  821-880. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        83 

which  they  said  was  all  because  of  their  having 
this  heretic  on  board,  and  so,  like  Jonah,  the 
young  adventurer  was  thrown  into  the  sea.  He 
was  a  good  swimmer,  however,  and  "  God  brought 
him,"  he  says,  to  a  little  island  with  no  inhabit- 
ants but  a  few  kine  and  goats.  Next  morning  he 
was  picked  up  by  a  Breton  vessel  which  carried 
him  as  far  as  Egypt  and  Cyprus.  The  command- 
ing officer,  Captain  La  Roche,  who  knew  some  of 
Smith's  friends  in  France,  treated  him  with  great 
kindness  and  consideration.  On  their 
return  voyage,  at  the  entrance  of  the  the  Mediter- 
Adriatic  Sea,  a  Venetian  argosy  fired 
upon  them,  and  a  hot  fight  ensued,  until  the  Vene- 
tian struck  her  colours.  The  Bretons  robbed  her 
of  an  immense  treasure  in  silks  and  velvets,  be- 
sides Turkish  gold  and  silver  coin,  as  much  as  they 
could  carry  without  overloading  their  own  ship, 
and  then  let  her  go  on  her  way.  When  the  spoil 
was  divided,  Smith  was  allowed  to  share  with  the 
rest,  and  thus  received  X225  in  coin  besides  a  box 
of  stuffs  worth  nearly  as  much  more.  After  Cap- 
tain La  Roche,  of  whom  he  speaks  with  warm 
affection,  had  set  him  ashore  in  Piedmont,  he 
made  a  comfortable  journey  through  Italy  as  far 
as  Naples,  and  seems  to  have  learned  much  and 
enjoyed  himself  in  "sight  seeing,"  quite  like  a 
modern  traveller.  At  Rome  he  saw  Pope  Clement 
VIII.  with  several  cardinals  creeping  on  hands 
and  knees  up  the  Holy  Staircase.  He  called  on 
Father  Parsons,  the  famous  English  Jesuit;  he 
"  satisfied  himself  with  the  rarities  of  Rome ;  "  he 
visited  in  like  manner  Florence  and  Bologna,  and 


84      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

gradually  made  his  way  to  Venice,  and  so  on  to 
Gratz  in  Styria,  where  he  entered  the  service  of 
the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.,  and  was  presently  put 
m  command  of  a  company  of  250  cavalry  with  the 
rank  of  captain.  On  one  occasion  he  made  him- 
self useful  by  devising  a  system  of  signals,  and  on 
another  occasion  by  inventing  a  kind  of  rude 
missiles  which  he  called  "  fiery  dragons,"  which 
sorely  annoyed  the  Turks  by  setting  fire  to  their 
camp. 

During  the  years  1601  and  1602  Smith  saw 
much,  rough  campaigning.  The  troop  to  which 
his  company  belonged  passed  into  the  service  of 
Sigismund1  Bathori,  Prince  of  Transylvania;  and 
now  comes  the  most  notable  incident  in  Smith's 
narrative.  The  Transylvanians  were  besieging 
Regal,  one  of  their  towns  which  the  Turks  had 
occupied,  and  the  siege  made  but  little  progress, 
so  that  the  barbarians  from  the  top  of  the  wall 
hurled  down  sarcasms  upon  their  assailants  and 
complained  of  growing  fat  for  lack  of  exercise. 
One  day  a  Turkish  captain  sent  a  challenge,  de- 
claring that  "  in  order  to  delight  the  ladies,  who 
did  long  to  see  some  court-like  pastime, 
Turii/6  he  did  defy  any  captain  that  had  the  com- 
mand of  a  company,  who  durst  combat 
with  him  for  his  head."  The  challenge  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  Christian  army,  it  was  decided  to 
select  the  champion  by  lot,  and  the  lot  fell  upon 
Smith.  A  truce  was  proclaimed  for  the  single 

1  For  a  good  sketch  of  Sigismund  and  his  relations  to  the 
Empire  and  to  the  Turks,  see  Schlosser's  Weltgeschichte,  vol. 
xiii.  pp.  325-344. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        85 

combat,  the  besieging  army  was  drawn  up  in  bat- 
tle array,  the  town  walls  were  crowded  with  veiled 
dames  and  turbaned  warriors,  the  combatants  on 
their  horses  politely  exchanged  salutes,  and  then 
rushed  at  each  other  with  levelled  lances.  At  the 
first  thrust  Smith  killed  the  Turk,  and  dismount- 
ing unfastened  his  helmet,  cut  off  his  head,  and 
carried  it  to  the  commanding  general,  Moses 
Tzekely,  who  accepted  it  graciously.  The  Turks 
were  so  chagrined  that  one  of  their  captains  sent 
a  personal  challenge  to  Smith,  and  next  day  the 
scene  was  repeated.  This  time  both  lances  were 
shivered  and  recourse  was  had  to  pistols,  the  Turk 
received  a  ball  which  threw  him  to  the  ground, 
and  then  Smith  beheaded  him.  Some  time  after- 
ward our  victorious  champion  sent  a  message  into 
the  town  "  that  the  ladies  might  know  he  was  not 
so  much  enamoured  of  their  servants'  heads,  but  if 
any  Turk  of  their  rank  would  come  to  the  place  of 
combat  to  redeem  them,  he  should  have  his  also 
upon  the  like  conditions,  if  he  could  win  it."  The 
defiance  was  accepted.  This  time  the  Turk,  hav- 
ing the  choice  of  weapons,  chose  battle-axes  and 
pressed  Smith  so  hard  that  his  axe  flew  from  his 
hand,  whereat  loud  cheers  arose  from  the  ram- 
parts ;  but  with  a  quick  movement  of  his  horse  he 
dodged  his  enemy's  next  blow,  and  drawing  hia 
sword  gave  him  a  fearful  thrust  in  the  side  which 
settled  the  affair ;  in  another  moment  Smith  had 
his  head.  At  a  later  time,  after  Prince  Sigismund 
had  heard  of  these  exploits,  he  granted  to  Smith  a 
coat-of-arms  with  three  Turks'  heads  in  a  shield. 
This  story  forcibly  reminds  us  that  the  Middle 


86     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Ages,  wliich  had  completely  passed  away  from 
France  and  Italy,  the  Netherlands  and  England, 
still  survived  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century  in  the  eastern  parts  of  Europe.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  such  "  court-like  pastime,"  in  the  in- 
tervals of  relaxation  from  more  serious  warfare, 
was  not  unfashionable.  Still,  though  the  incidents 
are  by  no  means  incredible,  the  story  has  enough 
of  the  look  of  an  old  soldier's  yarn  to  excuse  a  mo- 
ment's doubt  of  it.  Surely  here  if  anywhere  Smith 
may  seem  to  be  drawing  the  long  bow.  But  at  the 
Heralds'  College  in  London,  in  the  official  register 
of  grants  of  arms,  there  is  an  entry  in  Latin  which 
does  not  sustain  such  a  doubt.  It  is  the  record 
of  a  coat-of-arms  granted  by  Sigismund  Bathori, 
Prince  of  Transylvania,  "  to  John  Smith, 

Theentryin  .          Pctrf.        ,,. 

the  Heralds'  captain  of  250  soldiers,  etc.  ...  in  mem- 

College.  r 

ory  of  three  Turks'  heads  which  with  his 
sword  before  the  town  of  Regal  he  did  overcome, 
kill,  and  cut  off,  in  the  province  of  Transylvania."  1 
The  document  on  record,  which  contains  this  men- 
tion of  the  grant,  is  a  letter  of  safe  conduct  dated 
December  9,  1603,  signed  by  Sigismund  at  Leip- 
sic  and  given  by  him  to  Smith.  The  entry  is  duly 
approved,  and  the  genuineness  of  Sigismund's  seal 
and  signature  certified,  by  Sir  William  Segar, 
Garter  King  at  Arms.  Some  critics  have  sug- 
gested that  Smith  may  have  imposed  upon  Segar 
with  a  bogus  document,  and  since  the  entry  at  the 
Heralds'  College  was  made  in  1625,  it  is  urged 
that  such  a  long  delay  in  registering  invests  the 
whole  affair  with  suspicion. 

1  Smith's  Works,  ed.  Arber,  pp.  xxiL,  842. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        87 

The  document,  however,  cannot  be  thus  sum- 
marily set  aside.  In  the  year  1625  Rev.  Samuel 
Purchas  published  the  second  volume  of  his  de- 
lightful Pilgrimes,1  and  in  the  course  of  it  he 
devotes  several  pages  to  Captain  Smith's  adven- 
tures in  the  east  of  Europe,  including  the  story 
of  the  three  Turks  as  above  given.  Purchas's  au- 
thority for  the  story  was  "  a  Booke  intituled  The 
Warres  of  Transylvania,  Wallachi,  and  Moldavia," 
written  in  Italian  by  Francesco  Farnese,  secretary 
to  Prince  Siffismund.  This  history  seems 

i  i.   i      i     •        .  .      Farnese's 

never  to  have  been  published  in  its  on-  manuscript 

•i  •  history. 

gmal  form,  and  the  manuscript  is  now 
apparently  lost,2  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Purchas  had  it,  or  a  copy  of  it,  in  his  hands  about 
1623.  Smith's  own  book  entitled  "  True  Travels  " 
was  not  published  until  1629,  so  that  our  original 
authority  for  this  passage  at  arms  is  not  Smith 
himself,  but  one  of  Prince  Sigismund's  secreta- 
ries, who  first  told  the  story  of  the  English  cap- 
tain's exploit  in  a  book  written  for  Italian  readers. 
To  the  flippant  criticism  which  treats  Smith  as 
a  vapouring  braggart,  this  simple  fact  is  a  stag- 
gering blow  between  the  eyes.  Let  me  add  that 
in  his  way  of  telling  his  tale  there  is  no  trace  of 
boastfulness.3  For  freedom  from  egotistic  self- 

1  Purchas,  His  Pilgrimcs,  ii.  1363. 

2  So  many  long  missing  historical  documents  have  turned  up  of 
late  years  that  it  is  never  safe  to  assert  that  one  is  "  lost."     That 
great  scholar,  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  seems  to  have  seen  a 
printed  Spanish  translation  of  Farnese's  book,  but  I  do  not  know 
where  it  is. 

3  It  would  be  just  like  Smith,  I  think,  not  to  make  much  ac- 
count of  his  exploit.     Hence  he  neglected  to  make  any  record  of 


88  OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

consciousness  Smith's  writings  remind  me  strongly 
of  such  books  as  the  Memoirs  of  General  Grant. 
Inaccuracies  that  are  manifest  errors  of  memory 
now  and  then  occur,  prejudices  and  errors  of  judg- 
ment here  and  there  confront  us,  but  the  stamp  of 
honesty  I  find  on  every  page. 

At  the  bloody  battle  of  Rothenthurm,  November 
18,  1602,  Smith  was  taken  prisoner  and  sold  into 
slavery.  At  Constantinople  the  lady  Charatza 
smith  is  sow  Tragabigzanda,  into  the  service  of  whose 
as  a  slave,  famiiy  he  passed,  was  able  to  talk  with 
him  in  Italian  and  treated  him  with  kindness. 
One  can  read  between  the  lines  that  she  may  per- 
haps have  cherished  a  tender  feeling  for  the  young 
Englishman,  or  that  he  may  have  thought  so.  It 
would  not  have  been  strange.  Smith's  portrait, 
as  engraved  and  published  during  his  lifetime,  is 
that  of  an  attractive  and  noble-looking  man.  His 
brief  narrative  does  not  make  it  clear  how  he  re- 
garded the  lady,  or  what  relations  they  sustained 
to  each  other,  but  she  left  an  abiding  impression 
upon  his  memory.  When  in  1614  he  explored  the 
coast  of  New  England  he  gave  the  name  Tragabig- 
zanda to  the  cape  which  Prince  Charles  afterwards 
named  Cape  Anne,  and  the  three  little  neighbour- 
ing islands  he  called  the  Turks'  Heads. 

The  narrative  is  far  from  satisfying  us  as  to 
the  reasons  why  Smith  was  sent  away  from  Con- 
stantinople. To  the  east  of  the  Sea  of  Azov,  and 
bordering  on  the  Cossack  country,  was  a  territory 

his  grant  of  arms  until  the  appearance  of  Purchas's  book  in  1025, 
and  resulting  talks  among  friends,  probably  impressed  upon  him 
the  desirableness  of  making  such  a  record. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        89 

which  Gerard  Mercator  calls  Nalbrits,  and  Timour, 
the  Pasha  of  Nalbrits,  was  brother  to  the  lady 
Tragabigzanda.  Thither  she  sent  him,  with  a 
request  that  he  should  be  well  treated ;  but  the 
rude  Pasha  paid  no  heed  to  his  sister's  message, 
and  our  young  hero  was  treated  as  badly  as  the 
other  slaves,  of  whom  this  tyrant  had  many. 
"  Among  these  slavish  fortunes,"  says  Smith, 
•'  there  was  no  great  choice ;  for  the  best  was  so 
bad,  a  dog  could  hardly  have  lived  to  andcrueiiy 
endure  [it]."  He  was  dressed  in  the  skin  treated- 
of  a  wild  beast,  had  an  iron  collar  fastened  around 
his  neck,  and  was  cuffed  and  kicked  about  until 
he  grew  desperate.  One  day,  as  he  was  threshing 
wheat  in  a  lonely  grange  more  than  a  league  dis- 
tant from  Timour's  castle,  the  Pasha  came  in  and 
reviled  and  struck  him,  whereupon  Smith  suddenly 
knocked  him  down  with  his  threshing-stick  and 
beat  his  brains  out.  Then  he  stripped  the  body 
and  hid  it  under  the  straw,  dressed  up  in  the  dead 
man's  clothes  and  mounted  his  horse,  tied  a  sack 
of  grain  to  his  saddle-bow,  and  galloped  off  into 
the  Scythian  desert.  The  one  tormenting  fear  was 
of  meeting  some  roving  party  of  Turks  who  might 
recognize  the  mark  on  his  iron  collar  and  either 
send  him  back  to  his  late  master's  place 
or  enslave  him  on  their  own  account. 
But  in  sixteen  days  of  misery  he  saw  nobody ;  then 
he  arrived  at  a  Russian  fortress  on  the  Don  and 
got  rid  of  his  badge  of  slavery.  He  was  helped 
on  his  way  from  one  Russian  town  to  another,  and 
everywhere  treated  most  kindly.  Through  the  Po- 
lish country  he  went,  finding  by  the  wayside  much 


90     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

mirth  and  entertainment,  and  then  through  Hun- 
gary and  Bohemia,  until  at  length  he  reached 
Leipsic,  where  he  found  Prince  Sigismund.  It 
was  then,  in  December,  1603,  that  he  obtained  the 
letter  of  safe  conduct  already  mentioned.  In  the 
course  of  the  next  year  Smith  travelled  in  Ger- 
many, France,  Spain,  and  Morocco,  and  after  some 
further  adventures  made  his  way  back  to 
turn  to  England  in  the  nick  of  time  for  taking 

England.  .  n    .  -& 

part  in  the  enterprise  projected  by  the 
London  Company.  Meeting  with  Newport  and 
Gosnold,  and  other  captains  who  had  visited  the 
shores  of  America,  it  was  natural  that  his  strong 
geographical  curiosity  should  combine  with  his  love 
of  adventure  to  urge  him  to  share  in  the  enter- 
prise. 

The  brevity  of  Smith's  narrations  now  and  then 
leaves  the  story  obscure.  Like  many  another 
charming  old  writer,  he  did  not  always  consult 
the  convenience  of  the  historians  of  a  later  age. 
So  much  only  is  clear,  that  during  the  voyage 
across  the  Atlantic  the  seeds  of  quarrel  were  sown 
which  bore  fruit  in  much  bitterness  and  wrangling 

after  the  colonists  had  landed.     Indeed, 

The  smoke  .  , 

ofcontro-  alter  nearly  three  centuries  some  smoke 
of  the  conflict  still  hovers  about  the  field. 
To  this  day  John  Smith  is  one  of  the  personages 
about  whom  writers  of  history  are  apt  to  lose  their 
tempers.  In  recent  days  there  have  been  many 
attempts  to  belittle  him,  but  the  turmoil  that  has 
been  made  is  itself  a  tribute  to  the  potency  and 
incisiveness  of  his  character.  Weak  men  do  not 
call  forth  such  belligerency.  Amid  all  the  con- 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.       <91 

flicting  statements,  too,  there  comes  out  quite  dis- 
tinctly the  contemporary  recognition  of  his  dignity 
and  purity.  Never  was  warrior  known,  says  one 
old  writer,  "  from  debts,  wine,  dice,  and  oaths  so 
free  ;  " 1  a  staunch  Puritan  in  morals,  though  not 
in  doctrine. 

Captain  Newport's  voyage  was  a  long  one,  for 
he  followed  the  traditional  route,  first  running 
down  to  the  Canary  Islands  and  then  following 
Columbus's  route,  wafted  by  the  trade-  A  tedious 
wind  straight  across  to  the  West  Indies.  V°ya8e- 
It  seems  strange  that  he  should  have  done  so,  for 
the  modern  method  of  great-circle  sailing, — first 
practised  on  a  great  scale  by  Americus  Vespucius, 
in  1502,  in  his  superb  voyage  of  4,000  miles  in  33 
days,  from  the  ice-clad  island  of  South  Georgia  to 
Sierra  Leone,2  —  this  more  scientific  method  had 
lately  been  adopted  by  Captain  Gosnold,  who  in 
1602  crossed  directly  from  the  English  Channel 
to  Cape  Cod.  As  Gosnold  was  now  second  in 
command  in  this  expedition  to  Virginia,  it  would 
seem  as  if  the  shorter  route  might  once  more  have 
been  tried  to  advantage.  So  many  weeks  upon  the 
ocean  sadly  diminished  the  stock  of  provisions. 
In  the  course  of  the  voyage  some  trouble  arose 
between  Smith  and  Wingfield,  and  while  they  were 
stopping  at  Dominica,  on  the  24th  of  March,  an 
accusation  of  plotting  mutiny  was  brought  against 
the  former,  so  that  he  was  kept  in  irons  until  the 
ships  reached  Virginia.  After  leaving  the  West 

1  Thomas  Carlton's  verses,  in  Smith's  Works,  ed.  Arber,  p.  692. 
3  See  my  Discovery  of  America,  ii.  105. 


92      OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Indies  they  encountered  bad  weather  and  lost  their 

reckoning,  but  the  26th  of  April  brought  them  to 

the  cape  which  was  forthwith  named  Henry,  after 

the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  the  opposite  cape 

Arrival  in  i     r         i  • 

Chesapeake  was  afterwards  named  for  his  younger 
brother,  Prince  Charles.  A  few  of  the 
company  ventured  on  shore,  where  they  were  at 
once  attacked  by  Indians  and  two  were  badly 
wounded  with  arrows.  That  evening  the  sealed 
box  was  opened,  and  it  was  found  that  Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold,  Edward  Wingfield,  John  Smith, 
John  Ratcliffe,  John  Martin,  and  George  Kendall 
were  appointed  members  of  the  Council,  —  six  in 
all,  of  whom  the  president  was  to  have  two  votes. 
As  the  ships  proceeded  into  Hampton  Roads  after 
so  much  stress  of  weather,  they  named  the  promon- 
tory at  the  entrance  Point  Comfort.1  The  name 
of  the  broad  river  which  the  voyagers  now  entered 
speaks  for  itself.  They  scrutinized  the  banks 
until  they  found  a  spot  which  seemed  suited  for 
a  settlement,  and  there  they  landed  on  the  13th  of 
May.  It  was  such  a  place  as  the  worthy  Hakluyt 
(or  whoever  wrote  their  letter  of  instructions)  had 
emphatically  warned  them  against,  low  and  damp, 
and  liable  to  prove  malarious.2  At  high  tide  the 
rising  waters  half  covered  the  little  peninsula,  but 
in  this  there  was  an  element  of  military  security, 
for  the  narrow  neck  was  easy  to  guard,  and  per- 
haps it  may  have  been  such  considerations  that 

1  It  seems  likely  that  the  point  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Roads 
received  its  name  of  Newport  News  from  the  gallant  captain. 
On  several  old  maps  I  have  found  it  spelled  Newport  Ness,  which 
is  equivalent  to  Point  Newport. 

2  See  ahove,  p.  75. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        93 

prevailed.  Smith  says  there  was  a  dispute  between 
Wingfield  and  Gosnold  over  the  selection  of  this 
site.  As  soon  as  the  company  had  landed  here 
the  members  of  the  Council,  all  save  Smith,  were 
sworn  into  office,  and  then  they  chose 

Founding  of 

Wingfield  for  their  president  for  the  first  Jamestown ; 

r  Wingfield 

year.     On  the  next  day  the  men  went  to  chosen 

,      .,  ,.  .  i  president. 

work  at  building  their  fort,  a  wooden 
structure  of  triangular  shape,  with  a  demi-lune  at 
each  angle,  mounting  cannon.  They  called  it  Fort 
James,  but  soon  the  settlement  came  to  be  known 
as  Jamestown.1  For  a  church  they  nailed  a  board 
between  two  trees  to  serve  as  a  reading  desk,  and 
stretched  a  canvas  awning  over  it,  and  there  the 
Rev.  Robert  Hunt,  a  high-minded  and  courageous 
divine,  first  clergyman  of  English  America,  read 
the  Episcopal  service  and  preached  a  sermon  twice 
on  every  Sunday. 

Smith's  enemies  were  a  majority  in  the  Council 
and  would  not  admit  him  as  a  member,  but  he  was 
no  longer  held  as  a  prisoner.  Newport's  next 
business  was  to  explore  the  river,  and  Smith  with 
four  other  gentlemen,  four  skilled  mariners,  and 
fourteen  common  sailors,  went  along  with  him, 
while  the  Jamestown  fort  was  building.  They 
sailed  up  about  as  far  as  the  site  of  Richmond,  fre- 
quently meeting  parties  of  Indians  on  the  banks  or 
passing  Indian  villages.  Newport  was  uniformly 
kind  and  sagacious  in  his  dealings  with  the  red 
men,  and«they  seemed  quite  friendly.  These  were 

1  It  was  not  far  from  this  spot  that  Ayllon  had  made  his  un- 
successful attempt  to  found  a  Spanish  colony  in  1526.  See  my 
Discovery  of  America,  ii.  490. 


94     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Algonquins,  of  the  tribe  called  Powliatans,  and  the 
natives  who  had  assaulted  the  English  at 
tau  tribe,  Cape  Henry  belonged  to  a  hostile  tribe, 
andheadacy>  so  that  that  incident  furnished  a  bond 
of  sympathy  between  the  Powhatans  and 
the  white  men.  After  a  few  days  they  reached  the 
village  called  Powhatan  (i.  e.  "Falling  Waters"), 
which  Thomas  Studley,  the  colonial  storekeeper, 
describes  as  consisting  of  about  a  dozen  houses 
"  pleasantly  seated  on  a  hill."  Old  drawings  indi- 
cate that  they  were  large  clan  houses,  with  frame- 
work of  beams  and  covering  of  bark,  similar  in 
general  shape  though  not  in  all  details  to  the  long 
houses  of  the  Iroquois.  The  Powhatans  seem  to 
have  been  the  leading  or  senior  tribe  in  a  loose  con- 
federacy. Their  principal  village  was  called  Wero- 
wocomoco,  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  York 
River,  about  fifteen  miles  northeast  from  James- 
town as  the  crow  flies.  The  place  is  now  called 
Putin  Bay,  a  name  which  is  merely  a  corruption  of 
Powhatan.  At  Werowocomoco  dwelt  the  head 
war-chief  of  the  tribe,  by  name  Wahunsunakok, 
but  much  more  generally  known  by  his  title  as 
The  Powhatan,  just  as  the  head  of  an  Irish  or 
Scotch  clan  is  styled  The  O'Neill  or  The  Mac- 
Gregor.  Newport  and  Smith,  hearing  that  The 
Pcwhatan  was  a  chief  to  whom  other  chiefs  were 
in  a  measure  subordinate,  spoke  of  him  as  the  em- 
peror and  the  subordinate  chiefs  as  kings,  a  gro- 
tesque terminology  which  was  natural  enough  at 
that  day  but  which  in  the  interest  of  historical  ac- 
curacy it  is  high  time  for  modern  writers  to  drop. * 
1  The  Englishmen  were  bewildered  by  barbaric  usages  utterly 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        95 

When  Newport  and  Smith  returned  to  James- 
town, they  found  that  it  had  been  attacked  by  a 
force  of  200  Indians.  Wingfield  had  beaten  them 
off,  but  one  Englishman  was  killed  and  eleven 
were  wounded.  In  the  course  of  the  next  two 
weeks  these  enemies  were  very  annoying;  they 
would  crouch  in  the  tall  grass  about  the  fort  and 
pick  off  a  man  with  their  barbed  stone  -  tipped 
arrows.  Hakluyt  had  warned  the  settlers  against 
building  near  the  edge  of  a  wood ; 1  it  seems  strange 
that  bitter  experience  was  needed  to  teach  them 
that  danger  might  lurk  in  long  grass.  Presently 
some  of  their  new  acquaintances  from  the  Pow- 
hatan  tribe  came  to  the  fort  and  told  Newport  that 
the  assailants  were  from  a  hostile  tribe  against 
which  they  would  willingly  form  an  alliance ;  and 
they  furthermore  advised  him  to  cut  his  grass, 
which  seems  to  prove  that  they  were  sincere  in 
what  they  said. 

Smith  now  demanded  a  trial  on  the  charges 
which  had  led  to  his  imprisonment.  In  spite  of 
objections  from  Wingfield  a  jury  was  granted,  and 

foreign  to  their  experience.  Kinship  among  these  Indians,  as 
so  generally  among  barbarians  and  savages,  was  reckoned 
through  females  only,  and  when  the  English  visitors  were  told 
that  The  Powhatan's  office  would  descend  to  his  maternal 
brothers,  even  though  he  had  sons  living,  the  information  was 
evidently  correct,  but  they  found  it  hard  to  understand  or  be- 
lieve. So  when  one  of  the  chiefs  on  the  James  River  insisted 
upon  giving  back  some  powder  and  balls  which  one  of  his  men 
had  stolen,  it  was  regarded  as  a  proof  of  strict  honesty  and 
friendliness,  whereas  the  more  probable  explanation  is  that  a 
prudent  Indian,  at  that  early  time,  would  consider  it  bad  medi- 
cine to  handle  the  thunder-and-lightning  stuff  or  keep  it  about 
one.  See  my  Beginnings  of  New  England,  p.  85. 
1  See  above,  p.  75. 


96     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Smith  was  acquitted  of  all  the  charges  ;  so  that  on 
the  10th  of  June  he  was  allowed  to  take  his  seat 
in  the  Council.  On  the  15th  the  fort  was  finished, 
and  on  the  22d  Captain  Newport  sailed  for  Eng- 
land with  a  cargo  of  sassafras  and  fine  wood  for 
wainscoting.  He  took  the  direct  route  home- 
ward, for  need  was  now  visibly  pressing.  He 

promised  to  be  back  in  Virginia  within 
eaiiT  for  twenty  weeks,  but  all  the  food  he  could 
June  22,  leave  in  the  fort  was  reckoned  to  be 

scarcely  enough  for  fifteen  weeks,  so  that 
the  company  were  put  upon  short  rations.  Accord- 
ing to  Studley,  105  persons  were  left  at  James- 
town, of  whom  besides  the  6  councillors,  the  cler- 
gyman and  the  surgeon,  there  were  mentioned  by 
name  29  gentlemen,  6  carpenters,  1  mason,  2 
bricklayers,  1  blacksmith,  1  sailor,  1  drummer,  1 
tailor,  1  barber,  12  labourers,  and  4  boys,  with  38 
whom  he  neither  names  or  classifies  but  simply 
mentions  as  "divers  others."  The  food  left  in 
store  for  this  company  was  not  appetizing.  After 
the  ship  had  gone,  says  Richard  Potts,  "  there  re- 
mained neither  tavern,  beer-house,  nor  place  of 
relief  but  the  common  kettle ;  .  .  .  and  that  was 
half  a  pint  of  wheat  and  as  much  barley,  boiled 
with  water,  for  a  man  a  day ;  and  this,  having 
fried  some  26  weeks  in  the  ship's  hold,  contained 
as  many  worms  as  grains.  .  .  .  Our  [only]  drink 
was  water.  .  .  .  Had  we  been  as  free  from  all  sins 
as  gluttony  and  drunkenness,  we  might  have  been 
canonized  for  saints."  *  Chickens  were  raised, 
but  not  enough  for  so  many  mouths,  and  as  there 

1  Smith's  Works,  ed.  Arber,  p.  95. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.        97 

were  no  cattle  or  sheep  a  nourishing  diet  of  meat 

and  milk  was  out  of  the  question.      Nor 

do  we  find  much  mention  of  game,  though  of  the 

i     i         «•      ,1         colonists. 

there  were  some  who  warded  oil  the 
pangs  of  starvation  by  catching  crabs  and  sturgeon 
in  the  river.  With  such  inadequate  diet,  with 
unfamiliar  kinds  of  labour,  and  with  the  frightful 
heat  of  an  American  summer,  the  condition  of  the 
settlers  soon  came  to  be  pitiable.  Disease  soon 
added  to  their  sufferings.  Fevers  lurked  in  the  air 
of  Jamestown.  Before  the  end  of  September  more 
than  fifty  of  the  company  were  in  their  graves. 
The  situation  is  graphically  described  by  one  of 
the  survivors,  the  Hon.  George  Percy,  brother  of 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland :  "  There  were  neuer 
Englishmen  left  in  a  forreigne  Countrey  in  such 
miserie  as  wee  were  in  this  new  discouered  Vir- 
ginia. Wee  watched  euery  three  nights,  lying  on 
the  bare  .  .  .  ground,  what  weather  soeuer  came ; 
[and]  warded  all  the  next  day;  which  brought 
our  men  to  bee  most  feeble  wretches.  Our  food 
was  but  a  small  Can  of  Barlie  sodden  in  water  to 
fiue  men  a  day.  Our  drink  cold  water  taken  out 
of  the  River ;  which  was  at  a  floud  verie  Percy»s 
salt:  at  a  low  tide  full  of  slime  and  accountt 
filth;  which  was  the  destruction  of  many  of  our 
men.  Thus  we  lived  for  the  space  of  fiue  months 
in  this  miserable  distresse,  not  hauing  fiue  able 
mea  to  man  our  Bulwarkes  upon  any  occasion.  If 
it  had  not  pleased  God  to  haue  put  a  terrour  in 
the  Sauages  hearts,  we  had  all  perished  by  those 
vild  and  cruell  Pagans,  being  in  that  weake  estate 
as  we  were ;  our  men  night  and  day  groaning  in 


98     OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

every  corner  of  the  Fort  most  pittiful  to  lieare.  If 
there  were  any  conscience  in  men,  it  would  make 
their  harts  to  bleed  to  heare  the  pitifull  murmur- 
ings  and  outcries  of  our  sick  men  without  reliefe, 
euery  night  and  day  for  the  space  of  sixe  weekes : 
some  departing  out  of  the  World,  many  times  three 
or  f oure  in  a  night ;  in  the  morning  their  bodies 
being  trailed  out  of  their  Cabines  like  Dogges,  to 
be  buried.  In  this  sort  did  I  see  the  mortalitie  of 
diuers  of  our  people."  l 

In  such  a  state  of  things  our  colonists  would 
have  been  more  than  human  had  they  shown  very 
amiable  tempers.  From  the  early  wanderings  of 
the  Spaniards  in  Darien  down  to  the  recent 
marches  of  Stanley  in  Africa,  men  struggling  with 

the  wilderness  have  fiercely  quarrelled. 

The  fever  at  Jamestown  carried  off  Cap- 
tain Gosnold  in  August,  and  after  his  death  the 
feud  between  Smith's  friends  and  Wingfield's 
flamed  up  with  fresh  virulence.  Both  gentlemen 
have  left  printed  statements,  and  in  our  time  the 
quarrel  is  between  historians  as  to  which  to  be- 
lieve. Perhaps  it  is  Smith's  detractors  who  are 
just  at  this  moment  the  more  impetuous  and  impla- 
cable, appealing  as  they  do  to  the  churlish  feel- 
ing that  delights  in  seeing  long-established  rep- 
utations assailed.  Such  writers  will  tell  you  as 
positively  as  if  there  could  be  no  doubt  about  it, 
that  Smith  was  engaged  in  a  plot  with  two  other 
members  of  the  Council  to  depose  Wingfield  from 
his  presidency  and  establish  a  "  triumvirate  "  over 
that  tiny  woodland  company.  Others  will  assert, 

1  Smith's  Works,  p.  Ixxii. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWIIATANS.        99 

with  equal  confidence,  that  Wingfield  was  a  tyrant 
whose  ruthless  rule  became  insupportable.  A  peru- 
sal of  his  "  Discourse  of  Virginia,"  written  in  1608 
in  defence  of  his  conduct,  should  make  it  clear,  I 
think,  that  he  was  an  honourable  gentleman,  but 
ill  fitted  for  the  trying  situation  in  which  he  found 
himself.  To  control  the  rations  of  so  many  hun- 
gry men  was  no  pleasant  or  easy  matter.  It  was 
charged  against  Wingfield  that  he  kept  back 
sundry  dainties,  and  especially  some  wine  and 
spirits  for  himself  and  a  few  favoured  friends ; 
but  his  quite  plausible  defence  is  that  he  reserved 
two  gallons  of  sack  for  the  communion  table  and 
a  few  bottles  of  brandy  for  extreme  emergencies, 
but  the  other  members  of  the  Council,  whose  flasks 
were  all  empty,  "  did  long  for  to  sup  up  that  little 
remnant !  "  1  At  length  a  suspicion  arose  that  he 
intended  to  take  one  of  the  small  vessels  Wingfleld 
that  remained  in  the  river  and  abandon  j^teSffe 
the  colony.  Early  in  September  the  dentTsept.8,1 
Council  deposed  him  and  elected  John  1607> 
Ratcliffe  in  his  place.  A  few  days  later  Wingfield 
was  condemned  to  pay  heavy  damages  to  Smith 
for  defaming  his  character.  "Then  Master  Re- 
corder," says  poor  Wingfield,  "  did  very  learnedly 
comfort  me  that  if  I  had  wrong  I  might  bring  my 
writ  of  error  in  London  ;  whereat  I  smiled.  ...  I 
tould  Master  President  I  ...  prayed  they  would 
be  more  sparing  of  law  vntill  wee  had  more  witt 
or  wealthe."  2 

An  awful  dignity  hedged  about  the  sacred  per- 

1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  19. 

2  Smith's  Works,  p.  Ixxxiv. 


100      OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

son  of  the  president  of  that  little  colony  of  fifty 
men.  One  day  President  Ratcliffe  beat  James 
Heed,  the  blacksmith,  who  so  far  forgot  himself  as 
to  strike  back,  and  for  that  heinous  offence  was 
Execution  condemned  to  be  hanged ;  but  when 
of  amember  aiready  upOn  the  fatal  ladder,  and,  so 
to  speak,  in  extremis,  like  Reynard  the 
Fox,  the  resourceful  blacksmith  made  his  peace 
with  the  law  by  revealing  a  horrid  scheme  of 
mutiny  conceived  by  George  Kendall,  a  member 
of  the  Council.  Of  the  details  of  the  affair  no- 
thing is  known  save  that  Kendall  was  found  guilty, 
and  instead  of  a  plebeian  hanging  there  was  an 
aristocratic  shooting.  In  telling  the  story  Wing- 
field  observes  that  if  such  goings-on  were  to  be 
heard  of  in  England,  "  I  fear  it  would  drive  many 
well-affected  myndes  from  this  honourable  action 
of  Virginia." 

Wingfield's  pamphlet  freely  admits  that  Smith's 
activity  in  trading  with  the  Indians  for  corn  was 
of  great  service  to  the  suffering  colony.  With  the 
coming  of  autumn  so  many  wild  fowl  were  shot 
that  the  diet  was  much  improved.  On  the  10th  of 
December  Smith  started  on  an  exploring  expedi- 
tion up  the  Chickahominy  River.  Having  gone 
as  far  as  his  shallop  would  take  him,  he  left  seven 
men  to  guard  it  while  he  went  on  in  a  canoe  with 
only  two  white  men  and  two  Indian  guides.  This 
little  party  had  arrived  at  White  Oak  Swamp,  or 
somewhere  in  that  neighbourhood,  when  they  were 
suddenly  attacked  by  200  Indians  led  by  Opekan- 
kano,  a  brother  of  The  Powhatan.  Smith's  two 
comrades  were  killed,  and  he  was  captured  after 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.       101 

a  sturdy  resistance,  but  not  until  he  had  slain 
two  Indians  with  his  pistol.  It  was  quite  Smith  is 
like  the  quick-witted  man  to  take  out  his  oapeka^  by 
ivory  pocket  compass,  and  to  entertain  hlu0' 
the  childish  minds  of  the  barbarians  with  its  quiv- 
ering needle  which  they  could  plainly  see  through 
the  glass,  but,  strange  to  say,  could  not  feel  when 
they  tried  to  touch  it.  Very  like  him  it  was  to 
improve  the  occasion  with  a  brief  discourse  on 
star  craft,  eked  out  no  doubt  with  abundant  ges- 
ticulation, which  may  have  led  his  hearers  to 
regard  him  as  a  wizard.  There  seems  to  have 
been  a  difference  of  opinion  among  them.  They 
tied  Smith  to  a  tree,  and  the  fate  of  Saint  Sebas- 
tian seemed  in  store  for  him,  when  Opekankano 
held  up  the  compass ;  then  the  captive  was  untied, 
and  they  marched  away  through  the  forest,  taking 
him  with  them. 

It  is  not  at  all  clear  why  the  red  men  should 
have  made  this  attack.  Hitherto  the  Powhatans 
had  seemed  friendly  to  the  white  men  and  desirous 
of  an  alliance  with  them.  There  is  a  vague  tradi- 
tional impression  that  Opekankano  was  one  of  a 
party  opposed  to  such  a  policy ;  so  that  his  atti- 
tude might  remind  us  of  the  attitude  of  Montezu. 
ma's  brother  Cuitlahuatzin  toward  the  army  of 
Cortes  approaching  Mexico.  Such  a  view  is  not 
improbable.  Wingfield,  moreover,  tells  us  that 
two  or  three  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Eng- 
lish at  Jamestown  some  white  men  had  ascended  a 
river  to  the  northward,  probably  the  Pamunkey  or 
the  Rappahannock,  and  had  forcibly  kidnapped 
some  Indians.  If  there  is  truth  in  this,  the  kid- 


102     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

nappers  may  have  belonged  to  the  ill-fated  expedi- 
tion of  Bartholomew  Gilbert.  Wiiigfield  says  that 
Opekankano  carried  Smith  about  the  country  to 
several  villages  to  see  if  anybody  could  identify 
him  with  the  leader  of  that  kidnapping: 

who  takes  o      .  .  /»  i  • 

him  to  we-     party,     omith  s  narrative  confirms  this 

rowoco-  . 

moco.jan.,    statement,  and  adds  that  it  was  agreed 

1608.  ... 

that  the  captain  in  question  was  a  much 
taller  man  than  he.  His  story  is  full  of  observa- 
tions on  the  country.  Opekankano's  village  con- 
sisted of  four  or  five  communal  houses,  each  about 
a  hundred  feet  in  length,  and  from  the  sandy  hill 
in  which  it  stood  some  scores  of  such  houses  could 
be  seen  scattered  about  the  plain.  At  length 
Smith  was  brought  to  Werowocomoco  and  into 
the  presence  of  The  Powhatan,  who  received  him 
in  just  such  a  long  wigwam.  The  elderly  chieftain 
sat  before  the  fireplace,  on  a  kind  of  bench,  and 
was  covered  with  a  robe  of  raccoon  skins,  all  with 
the  tails  on  and  hanging  like  ornamental  tassels. 
Beside  him  sat  his  young  squaws,  a  row  of  women 
with  their  faces  and  bare  shoulders  painted  bright 
red  and  chains  of  white  shell  beads  about  their 
necks  stood  around  by  the  walls,  and  in  front  of 
them  stood  the  grim  warriors. 

This  was  on  the  5th  of  January,  1608,  and  on 
the  8th  Smith  returned  to  Jamestown,  escorted  by 
four  Indians.  What  had  happened  to  him  in  the 
interval  ?  In  his  own  writings  we  have  two  differ- 
ent accounts.  In  his  tract  published  under  the 
title,  "  A  True  Relation,"  —  which  was  merely  a 
letter  written  by  him  in  or  about  June,  1608,  to 
a  "  worshipful  friend  "  in  London  and  there  pub- 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.       103 

lished,  apparently  without  his  knowledge,  in  Au- 
gust, —  Smith  simply  says  that  The  Powhatan 
treated  him  very  courteously  and  sent  him  back 
to  Jamestown.  But  in  the  "  General  History  of 
Virginia,"  a  far  more  elaborate  and  circumstantial 
narrative,  published  in  London  in  1624,  written 
partly  by  Smith  himself  and  partly  by  others  of 
the  colony,  we  get  a  much  fuller  story.  We  are 
told  that  after  he  had  been  introduced  to  The 
Powhatan's  long  wigwam,  as  above  described,  the 
Indians  debated  together  and  presently  two  big 
stones  were  placed  before  the  chief,  and  Smith 
was  dragged  thither  and  his  head  laid 

The  rescue 

upon  them ;  but  even  while  warriors  were  *>y  Pocahon- 
standing,  with  clubs  in  hand,  to  beat  his 
brains  out,  the  chief's  young  daughter  Pocahontas 
rushed  up  and  embraced  him  and  laid  her  head 
upon  his  to  shield  him,  whereupon  her  father 
spared  his  life. 

For  two   centuries   and  a  half  the  later   and 
fuller  version  of   this   story  was  universally  ac- 
cepted while  the  earlier  and  briefer  was  ignored. 
Every  schoolboy  was  taught  the  story  of  Pocahon- 
tas and  John  Smith,  and  for  most  people  I  dare 
say  that  incident  is  the  only  one  in  the  captain's 
eventful  career  that  is  remembered.    But  in  recent 
times  the  discrepancy  between  the  earlier  and  later 
accounts  has  attracted  attention,  and  the  conclu- 
sion has  been  hastily  reached  that  in  the  more 
romantic  version  Smith  is  simply  a  liar,   Recent  at_ 
It  is  first  assumed  that  if  the  Pocahontas  £"£{£ 
incident  had  really  occurred,  we  should  thestory- 
be  sure  to  find  it  in  Smith's  own  narrative  written 


104      OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

within  a  year  after  its  occurrence  ;  and  then  it  is 
assumed  that  in  later  years,  when  Pocahontas  vis- 
ited London  and  was  lionized  as  a  princess,  Smith 
invented  the  story  in  order  to  magnify  his  own 
importance  by  thus  linking  his  name  with  hers. 
By  such  specious  logic  is  the  braggadocio  theory 
of  Smith's  career  supported,  and  underneath  the 
whole  of  it  lies  the  tacit  assumption  that  the  Poca- 
hontas incident  is  an  extraordinary  one,  something 
that  in  an  Indian  community  or  anywhere  would 
not  have  been  likely  to  happen. 

As  this  view  of  the  case  has  been  set  forth  by 
writers  of  high  repute  for  scholarship,  it  has  been 
generally  accepted  upon  their  authority  ;  in  many 
quarters  it  has  become  the  fashionable  view.  Yet 
its  utter  flimsiness  can  be  exhibited,  I  think,  in 
very  few  words. 

The  first  occasion  on  which  Smith  mentions  his 
rescue  by  Pocahontas  was  the  occasion  of  her  arri- 
val in  London,  in  1616,  as  the  wife  of  John  Rolfe. 
In  an  eloquent  letter  to  King  James's  queen, 
Anne  of  Denmark,  he  bespeaks  the  royal  favour 
for  the  strange  visitor  from  Virginia  and  extols 
her  good  qualities  and  the  kindness  she  had  shown 
to  the  colony.  In  the  course  of  the  letter  he  says 
"  she  hazarded  the  beating  out  of  her  own  brains 
to  save  mine."  There  were  then  several  persons 
in  London,  besides  Pocahontas  herself,  who  could 
have  challenged  this  statement  if  it  had  been  false, 
but  we  do  not  find  that  anybody  did  so.1  In  1624, 

1  It  is  true,  this  letter  of  1616  was  first  made  public  in  the 
"  General  History  "  in  1624  (see  Smith's  Works,  p.  530)  ;  so  that 
Smith's  detractors  may  urge  that  the  letter  is  trumped  up  and 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.       105 

when  Smith  published  his  "  General  History," 
with  its  minutely  circumstantial  account  of  the 
affair,  why  do  we  not  find,  even  on  the 

Percy's 

part  of  his  enemies,  any  intimation  of  pamphlet, 
the  falsity  of  the  story  ?  Within  a  year 
George  Percy  wrote  a  pamphlet 1  for  the  express 
purpose  of  picking  the  "  General  History "  to 
pieces  and  discrediting  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  pub- 
lic ;  he  was  one  of  the  original  company  at  James- 
town. If  Smith  had  not  told  his  comrades  of  the 
Pocahontas  incident  as  soon  as  he  had  escaped 
from  The  Powhatan's  clutches,  if  he  had  kept  si- 
lent on  the  subject  for  years,  Percy  could  not  have 
failed  to  know  the  fact  and  would  certainly  have 
used  it  as  a  weapon.  There  were  others  who  could 
have  done  the  same,  and  their  silence  furnishes  a 
very  strong  presumption  of  the  truth  of  the  story. 
Why  then  did  Smith  refrain  from  mentioning  it 
in  the  letter  to  a  friend  in  England,  written  in 
1608,  while  the  incidents  of  his  captivity 

•  •  -in        -»TT    11  -i         The  Printed 

were  fresh  in  his  mind  ?     Well,  we  do  text  of  the 

TI          e      •        f  "TrueRela- 

not  know  that  he  did  refrain  from  men-  tion "  is  in- 

....  i,  ,  ,        ,  complete. 

tioning  it,  tor  we  do  know  that  the  letter, 
as  published  in  August,  1608,  had  been  tampered 
with.  Smith  was  in  Virginia,  and  the  editor  in 
London  expressly  states  in  his  Preface  that  he 
has  omitted  a  portion  of  the  manuscript :  "  some- 
what more  was  by  him  written,  which  being  (as  I 
thought)  fit  to  be  private,  I  would  not  adventure  to 

was  never  sent  to  Queen  Anne.  If  so,  the  question  recurs,  Why 
did  not  some  enemy  or  hostile  critic  of  Smith  in  1624  call  atten- 
tion to  so  flagrant  a  fraud  ? 

1  Brown's  Genesis,  ii.  964 ;  Neill's  Virginia  Vttusta,  pp.  T-X. 


106      OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

make  it  public."  Nothing  could  be  more  explicit. 
Observe  that  thus  the  case  of  Smith's  detractors 
falls  at  once  to  the  ground.  Their  rejection  of 
the  Pocahontas  story  is  based  upon  its  absence 
from  the  printed  text  of  the  "  True  Relation,"  but 
inasmuch  as  that  printed  text  is  avowedly  incom- 
plete no  such  inference  is  for  a  moment  admis- 
sible. For  the  omitted  portion  is  as  likely  as  not 
to  have  been  the  passage  describing  Smith's  immi- 
nent peril  and  rescue. 

On  this  supposition,  what  could  have  been  the 
editor's  motive  in  suppressing  the  passage  ?  We 
need  not  go  far  afield  for  an  answer  if  we  bear  in 
mind  the  instructions  with  which  the  first  colonists 
started,  —  "to  suffer  no  man  ...  to  write  [in] 
any  letter  of  anything  that  may  discourage 
others." 1  This  very  necessary  and  important 
injunction  may  have  restrained  Smith  himself 
Reason  for  f rom  mentioning  his  deadly  peril ;  if  he 
pSnt«e  did  mention  it,  we  can  well  understand 
incident.  whv  the  person  who  published  the  letter 

should  have  thought  it  best  to  keep  the  matter 
private.  After  a  few  years  had  elapsed  and  the 
success  of  the  colony  was  assured,  there  was  no 
longer  any  reason  for  such  reticence.  My  own 
opinion  is  that  Smith,  not  intending  the  letter  for 
publication,  told  the  whole  story,  and  that  the  sup- 
pression was  the  editor's  work.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  in  the  fight  in  which  he  was  captured, 
Smith  slew  two  Indians.  In  the  circumstantial 
account  given  in  the  "  General  History "  we  are 
told  that  while  Opekankano  was  taking  him  up  and 
1  See  above,  p.  76. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      107 

down  the  country,  a  near  relative  of  one  of  these 
victims  attempted  to  murder  Smith  but  was  pre- 
vented by  the  Indians  who  were  guarding  him. 
The  "  True  Relation "  preserves  this  incident, 
while  it  omits  all  reference  to  the  two  occasions 
when  Smith's  life  was  officially  and  deliberately 
imperilled,  the  tying  to  the  tree  and  the  scene  in 
The  Powhatan's  wigwam.  One  can  easily  see 
why  the  editor's  nerves  should  not  have  been  dis- 
turbed by  the  first  incident,  so  like  what  might 
happen  in  England,  while  the  more  strange  and 
outlandish  exhibitions  of  the  Indian's  treatment 
of  captives  seemed  best  to  be  dropped  from  the 
narrative. 

But,  we  are  told,  the  difficulty  is  not  merely  one 
of  omission.     In  the  "  True  Relation  "  Smith  not 
only  omits  all  reference  to  Pocahontas, 
but  he  says  that  he  was  kindly  and  cour-  incongruity 
teously  treated  by  his  captors,  and  this  two  narra- 
statement  is  thought  to  be  incompatible  the  omit 
with  their  having  decided  to   beat   his 
brains  out.     Such  an  objection  shows  ignorance 
of  Indian  manners.     In  our  own  time  it  has  been 
a  common  thing  for  Apaches  and  Comanches  to 
offer   their  choicest  morsels  of    food,  with    their 
politest  bows  and  smiles,  to  the  doomed  captive 
whose  living  flesh  will  in  a  few  moments  be  hiss- 
ing under  their  firebrands.     The  irony  of  such  a 
situation   is    inexpressibly  dear   to   the   ferocious 
hearts  of  these  men  of  the  Stone  Age,  and  Ameri- 
can history  abounds  in   examples  of  it.     In   his 
fuller  account,  indeed,  Smith  describes  himself  as 
kindly  treated  on  his  way  to  the  scene  of  execu- 


108      OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

tion  l  and  after  his  rescue.  Drop  out  what  hap- 
pened in  the  interval  and  you  get  the  account 
given  in  the  "  True  Relation." 

Now  that  omission,  creates  a  gap  in  the  "True 
Relation "  such  as  to  fatally  damage  its  credi- 
The  account  bility.  We  are  told  that  Smith,  after 
'^General  killing  a  couple  of  Indians,  is  taken  cap- 
the  more  u  tiye  and  carried  to  the  head  war-chief's 
probable.  wigwam,  and  is  then  forsooth  allowed  to 
go  scot  free  with  no  notice  taken  of  the  blood  debt 
that  he  owes  to  the  tribe !  To  any  one  who  has 
studied  Indians  such  a  story  is  well-nigh  incred- 
ible. As  a  prisoner  of  war  Smith's  life  was 
already  forfeited.2  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  In- 
dian would  think  of  releasing  him  without  some 
equivalent ;  such  an  act  might  incur  the  wrath  of 
invisible  powers.  There  were  various  ways  of 
putting  captives  to  death ;  torture  by  slow  fire 
was  the  favourite  mode,  but  crushing  in  the  skull 
with  tomahawks  was  quite  common,  so  that  when 
Smith  mentions  it  as  decided  upon  in  his  case  he 
is  evidently  telling  the  plain  truth,  and  we  begin 
to  see  that  the  detailed  account  in  the  "  General 
History"  is  more  consistent  and  probable  than 
the  abridged  account  in  the  "  True  Relation." 

1  Even  in  The  Powhatan's  wigwam,  it  was  only  after  "  having 
feasted  him    [Smith]    after  their  best   barbarous   manner  they 
could,"    that  the  Indians  brought  the  stones  and  prepared  to 
kill  him.     Smith's  Works,  p.  400. 

2  It  is  true  that  in  1608  the  Powhatans  were  still  unfamiliar 
with  white  men  and  inclined  to  dread  them  as  more  or  less  super- 
natural ;  but  they  had  thoroughly  learned  that  fair  skins  and 
long  beards  were  no  safeguard  against  disease  and  death.     If 
they  did  not  know  that  the  Jamestown  colony    had  dwindled 
to  eight-and-thirty  men,  they  knew  that  their  own  warriors  had 
slain  all  Smith's  party  and  taken  him  captive. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      109 

The  consistency  and  probability  of  the  story  are 
made  complete  by  the  rescue  at  the  hands  of 
Pocahontas.  That  incident  is  precisely  in  accord- 
ance with  Indian  usage,  but  it  is  not  likely  that 
Smith  knew  enough  about  such  usage  to  have  in- 
vented it,  and  his  artless  way  of  telling  the  story 
is  that  of  a  man  who  is  describing  what  he  does 
not  understand.  From  the  Indian  point  of  view 
there  was  nothing  romantic  or  extraordinary  in 
such  a  rescue ;  it  was  simply  a  not  un- 

_     ,         .  rp.  The  rescue 

common  matter  or  business.  Ine  ro-  was  in  strict 
mance  with  which  white  readers  have  with  Indian 
always  invested  it  is  the  outcome  of  a 
misconception  no  less  complete  than  that  which 
led  the  fair  dames  of  London  to  make  obeisance 
to  the  tawny  Pocahontas  as  to  a  princess  of  im- 
perial lineage.  Time  and  again  it  used  to  happen 
that  when  a  prisoner  was  about  to  be  slaughtered, 
some  one  of  the  dusky  assemblage,  moved  by  pity 
or  admiration  or  some  unexplained  freak,  would 
interpose  in  behalf  of  the  victim ;  and  as  a  rule 
such  interposition  was  heeded.  Many  a  poor 
wretch,  already  tied  to  the  fatal  tree  and  be- 
numbed with  unspeakable  terror,  while  the  fire- 
brands were  heating  for  his  torment,  has  been 
rescued  from  the  jaws  of  death,  and  adopted  as 
brother  or  lover  by  some  laughing  young  squaw,  or 
as  a  son  by  some  grave  wrinkled  warrior.  In  such 
cases  the  new-comer  was  allowed  entire  freedom 
and  treated  like  one  of  the  tribe.  As  the  blood 
debt  was  cancelled  by  the  prisoner's  violent  death, 
it  was  also  cancelled  by  securing  his  services  to 
the  tribe;  and  any  member,  old  or  young,  had 


110   OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

a  right  to  demand  the  latter  method  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  former.  Pocahontas,  therefore,  did 
not  "  hazard  the  beating  out  of  her  own  brains," 
though  the  rescued  stranger,  looking  with  civilized 
eyes,  would  naturally  see  it  in  that  light.  Her 
brains  were  perfectly  safe.  This  thirteen-year-old 
squaw  liked  the  handsome  prisoner,  claimed  him, 
and  got  him,  according  to  custom.  Mark  now 
what  happened  next.  Two  days  afterward  The 
Powhatan,  "  having  disguised  himself e  in  the  most 
fearfullest  manner  he  could,  caused  Captain  Smith 
to  be  brought  forth  to  a  great  house  in  the  woods, 
and  there  vpon  a  mat  by  the  fire  be  left  alone. 
Not  long  after  frome  behind  a  mat  that  divided 
the  house  [i.  e.  a  curtain]  was  made  the  most 
dolefullest  noyse  he  ever  heard."  J  Then  the  old 
chieftain,  looking  more  like  the  devil  than  a  man, 
came  to  Smith  and  told  him  that  now  they  were 
friends  and  he  might  go  back  to  Jamestown ; 
then  if  he  would  send  to  The  Powhatan  a  couple 
Adoption  of  °^  cannon  and  a  grindstone,  he  should 
have  in  exchange  a  piece  of  land  in  the 
neighbourhood,  and  that  chief  would  evermore 
esteem  him  as  his  own  son.  Smith's  narrative 
does  not  indicate  that  he  understood  this  to  be 
anything  more  than  a  friendly  figure  of  speech, 
but  it  seems  clear  that  it  was  a  case  of  ceremoni- 
ous adoption.  As  the  natural  result  of  the  young 
girl's  intercession  the  white  chieftain  was  adopted 
into  the  tribe.  A  long  incantation,  with  dismal 
howls  and  grunts,  propitiated  the  tutelar  deities, 
and  then  the  old  chief,  addressing  Smith  as  a  son, 

1  Smith's  Works,  p.  400. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      Ill 

proposed  an  exchange  of  gifts.  The  next  time 
that  Smith  visited  Werowocomoco,  The  Powhatan 
proclaimed  him  a  "werowance "  or  chief  of  the 
tribe,  and  ordered  "that  all  his  subjects  should  so 
esteem  us,  and  no  man  account  us  strangers  .  .  . 
but  Powhatans,  and  that  the  corn,  women,  and 
country  should  be  to  us  as  to  his  own  people." l 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  question 
of  Smith's  veracity  for  three  good  reasons.  First, 
in  the  interests  of  sound  historical  criti-  Importance 
cism,  it  is  desirable  to  show  how  skepti-  °f{  tp^,^ory 
cism,  which  is  commonly  supposed  to  hontas- 
indicate  superior  sagacity,  is  quite  as  likely  to 
result  from  imperfect  understanding.  Secondly, 
justice  should  be  done  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the 
noblest  and  most  lovable  characters  in  American 
history.  Thirdly,  the  rescue  of  Smith  by  Poca- 
hontas  was  an  event  of  real  historic  importance. 
Without  it  the  subsequent  relations  of  the  Indian 
girl  with  the  English  colony  become  incompre- 
hensible. But  for  her  friendly  services  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  the  tiny  settlement  would 
probably  have  perished.  Her  visits  to  Jamestown 
and  the  regular  supply  of  provisions  by  the  In- 
dians began  at  this  time.2 

1  Id.  p.  26.     Of  course  the  cases  of  rescue  and  adoption  were 
endlessly  various  in  circumstances ;  see  the  case  of  Couture,  in 
Parkman's   Jesuits,  p.  223 ;  on   another  occasion   "  Brigeac  was 
tortured  to  death  with  the  customary  atrocities.     Cuille'rier,  who 
was  present,  .  .  .  expected  the  same  fate,  but  an  old  squaw  hap- 
pily adopted   him,   and   thus   saved  his  life."     Parkman's   Old 
Regime  in  Canada,  revised  ed.  p.  108.     For  adoption  in  general 
see  Morgan,  Ancient  Society,  p.  80  ;  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  342  ; 
Colden's  History  of  the  Five  Nations,  London,  1755,  i.  9. 

2  Of  the  really  critical  attacks  upon  the  story  of  Pocahontas, 


112   OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

On  the  very  day  that  Smith  returned  to  James- 
town the  long  expected  ship  of  Captain  Newport 
Arrival  of  arrived  with  what  was  known  as  the  First 
suppiy,SJan.  Supply  of  men  and  provisions.  Part 
came  now,  the  rest  a  few  weeks  later. 
Only  38  men  had  survived  the  hardships  at  James- 
town ;  to  these  the  First  Supply  added  120,  bring- 
ing the  number  up  to  158.  For  so  many  people, 
besides  the  food  they  brought  with  them  more  corn 
was  needed.  So  Smith  took  his  "  Father  New- 
port," as  he  called  him,  over  to  Werowocomoco, 
where  they  tickled  "  Father  Powhatan's "  fancy 
with  blue  glass  beads  and  drove  some  tremendous 
bargains.  As  spring  came  on,  Newport  sailed  for 
England  again,  taking  with  him  the  deposed 
Wingfield.  The  summer  of  1608  was  spent  by 
Smith  in  two  voyages  of  exploration  up  Chesa- 
peake Bay  and  into  the  Potomac,  Patapsco,  and 
Susquehanna  rivers.  He  met  with  warriors  of  the 
formidable  Iroquois  tribe  of  Susquehannocks,  and 
found  them  carrying  a  few  French  hatchets  which 

the  most  important  are  those  of  Charles  Deane,  in  his  Notes  on 
Wingfield^s  Discourse  of  Virginia,  Boston,  1859,  and  Henry 
Adams,  in  the  North  American  Review,  vol.  civ.  Their  argu- 
ments have  been  ably  answered  by  W.  W.  Henry,  in  Proceedings 
of  Virginia  Historical  Society,  1882,  and  Charles  Poindexter,  in 
his  Captain  John  Smith  and  his  Critics,  Richmond,  1893.  There 
are  two  writers  of  valuable  books  who  seldom  allude  to  Smith 
without  sneers  and  words  of  abuse,  —  Alexander  Brown,  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  Edward  Duffield  Neill,  of  Minnesota  ;  they  seem  to  re- 
sent, as  a  personal  grievance,  the  fact  that  the  gallant  captain 
ever  existed.  On  the  other  hand,  no  one  loves  him  better  than 
the  learned  editor  of  his  books,  who  has  studied  them  with  micro- 
scopic thoroughness,  Edward  Arber.  My  own  defence  of  Smith, 
when  set  forth  in  a  lecture  at  University  College,  London,  1879, 
was  warmly  approved  by  my  friend,  the  late  Henry  Stevens. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      113 

had  evidently  come  from  Canada.  During  his 
absence  things  went  badly  at  Jamestown  Ratciiffe  de- 
and  Ratcliffe  was  deposed.  On  Smith's  g^; 
return  in  September  he  was  at  once  dent!s^t.f" 
chosen  president.  Only  28  men  had  been  oftllsel-*1 
lost  this  year,  so  that  the  colony  num-  ond  Supply- 
bered  130,  when  Newport  again  arrived  in  Sep- 
tember, with  the  Second  Supply  of  70  persons, 
bringing  the  total  up  to  200.  In  this  company 
there  were  two  women,  a  Mrs.  Forrest  and  her 
maid,  Anne  Burroughs,  who  was  soon  married  to 
John  Laydon,  the  first  recorded  English  wedding 
on  American  soil. 

Newport's  instructions  show  that  the  members 
of  the  London  Company,  sitting  at  their  cosy  Eng- 
lish firesides,  were  getting  impatient  and  Captain 
meant  to  have  something  done.  He  was  {J^^fcJJ^ 
told  that  he  must  find  either  the  way 
to  the  South  Sea,  or  a  lump  of  gold,  or  one  of 
White's  lost  colonists,  or  else  he  need  not  come 
back  and  show  his  face  in  England !  One  seems 
taken  back  to  the  Arabian  Nights,  where  such 
peremptory  behests  go  along  with  enchanted  car- 
pets and  magic  rings  and  heroic  steeds  with  pegs 
in  the  neck.  No  such  talismans  were  to  be  found 
in  Old  Virginia.  When  Newport  read  his  instruc- 
tions, Smith  bluntly  declared  that  the  London 
Company  were  fools,  which  seems  to  have  shocked 
the  decorous  mariner.  The  next  order  was  gro- 
tesque enough  to  have  emanated  from  the  teem- 
ing brain  of  James  I.  after  a  mickle  noggin  of 
his  native  Glenlivat.  Their  new  ally,  the  mighty 
Emperor  Powhatan,  must  be  crowned !  Newport 


114   OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

and  Smith  did  it,  and  much  mirth  it  must  have 
afforded   them.      The  chief   refused   to  come  to 
Jamestown,  so  Mahomet  had  to  go  to  the  moun- 
tain.    Up  in  the  long  wigwam  at  Wero- 

Coronation  ,  „       ,.   ,  ...  , 

of  The  wocomoco  the  two  .Englishmen  divested 
the  old  fellow  of  his  raccoon-skin 1  gar- 
ment and  put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe  which  greatly 
pleased  him.  Then  they  tried  to  force  him  down 
upon  his  knees  —  which  he  did  not  like  at  all  — 
while  they  put  the  crown  on  his  head.  When 
the  operation  was  safely  ended,  the  forest-monarch 
grunted  acquiescence  and  handed  to  Newport  his 
old  raccoon-skin  cloak  as  a  present  for  his  royal 
brother  in  England. 

An  Indian  masquerading  scene  at  one  of  these 
visits  to  Werowocomoco  is  thus  described  by  one 
of  the  English  party :  "  In  a  fayre  playne  field 
they  made  a  fire,  before  which  [we]  sitting  upon 
a  mat,  suddainly  amongst  the  woods  was  heard 
...  a  hydeous  noise  and  shrieking.  .  .  .  Then 
presently  [we]  were  presented  with  this  anticke ; 
thirtie  young  women  came  [nearly]  na- 

Howtheln-    .      ,  ,        .     ,  i     .      i      i- 

dian  giris      ked  out  ot  the  woods,  ...  their  bodies 

danced  at  . 

werowoco-     all  painted,  some  white,  some  red,  some 

black,  some  particolour,  but  all  differing ; 

their  leader  had  a  fayre  payre  of  buck's  horns  on 

her  head,  and  an  otter's  skin  at  her  girdle,  and  an- 

1  The  word  "  raccoon  "  is  a  thorn  in  poor  Smith's  flesh,  and 
his  attempts  to  represent  the  sound  of  it  from  guttural  Indian 
mouths  are  droll :  "  There  is  a  beast  they  call  Aroughcun,  much 
like  a  badger,  but  useth  to  live  on  trees  as  squirrels  do."  — "  He 
sent  me  presents  of  bread  and  Raugroughcuns."  —  "  Covered  with 
a  great  covering  of  Rahoughcums."  —  "A  robe  made  of  Rarowcun 
skins,"  etc.,  etc. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      115 

other  at  her  arm,  a  quiver  of  arrowes  at  her  back, 
a  bow  and  arrowes  in  her  hand  ;  the  next  had  in 
her  hand  a  sword,  another  a  club,  ...  all  horned 
alike.  .  .  .  These  fiends  with  most  hellish  shouts 
and  cries,  rushing  from  among  the  trees,  cast 
themselves  in  a  ring  about  the  fire,  singing  and 
dauncing  with  most  excellent  ill  varietie ;  .  .  . 
having  spent  neare  an  houre  in  this  mascarado,  as 
they  entred  in  like  manner  they  departed.  Having 
reaccommodated  themselves,  they  solemnly  invited 
[us]  to  their  lodgings,  where  [we]  were  no  sooner 
within  the  house  but  all  these  nymphes  more  tor- 
mented us  than  ever,  with  crowding,  pressing,  and 
hanging  about  [us],  most  tediously  crying,  Love 
you  not  me  ?  This  salutation  ended,  the  feast  was 
set,  consisting  of  fruit  in  baskets,  fish  and  flesh  in 
wooden  platters  ;  beans  and  peas  there  wanted 
not,  nor  any  salvage  dainty  their  invention  could 
devise :  some  attending,  others  singing  and  dan- 
cing about  [us]  ;  which  mirth  and  banquet  being 
ended,  with  firebrands  [for]  torches  they  con- 
ducted [us]  to  [our]  lodging." 

The  wood-nymphs  who  thus  entertained  their 
guests  are  in  one  account  mentioned  simply  as 
"  Powhatan's  women,"  in  another  they  are  spoken 
of  as  "  Pocahontas  and  her  women  ; "  which  seems 
to  give  us  a  realistic  sketch  of  the  little  maid  with 
her  stag-horn  headdress  and  skin  all  stained  with 
puccoon  leading  her  companions  in  their 

_,  .  .  Accuracy  of 

grotesque  capers.     Iruly,  it  was  into  a  smith's  de- 

,  J  scriptions. 

strange  world  and  among  a  strange  peo- 
ple that  our  colonists  had  come.     Their  quaint  de- 
scriptions of  manners  and  customs  utterly  new  and 


116   OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

unintelligible  to  them,  though  familiar  enough  to 
modern  students  of  barbaric  life,  have  always  the 
ring  of  truth.  Nowhere  in  the  later  experiences  of 
white  men  with  Indians  do  we  find  quite  so  pow- 
erful a  charm  as  in  the  early  years  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  No  other  such  narratives  are  quite 
so  delightful  as  those  of  Champlain  and  his  friends 
in  Canada,  and  those  of  Smith  and  his  comrades 
in  Virginia.  There  is  a  freshness  about  this  first 
contact  with  the  wilderness  and  its  uncouth  life 
that  makes  every  incident  vivid.  There  is  a  fas- 
cination too,  not  unmixed  with  sadness,  in  watch- 
ing the  early  dreams  of  El  Dorado  fade  away  as 
the  stern  reality  of  a  New  World  to  be  conquered 
comes  to  make  itself  known  and  felt.  Naturally 
the  old  delusions  persisted  at  home  in  England 
long  after  the  colonists  had  been  taught  by  costly 
experiences  to  discard  them,  and  we  smile  at  the 
well-meant  blundering  of  the  ruling  powers  in  Lon- 
don in  their  efforts  to  hasten  the  success  of  their 
enterprise.  In  vain  did  the  faithful  Newport  seek 
to  perform  the  mandates  of  the  London  Company. 
No  nuggets  of  gold  were  to  be  found,  nor  traces  of 
poor  Eleanor  Dare  and  her  friends,  and  The  Pow- 
hatan  told  the  simple  truth  when  he  declared  that 
there  were  difficult  mountains  westward  and  it 
would  be  useless  to  search  for  a  salt  sea  behind 
them.  Newport  tried,  nevertheless,  but  came  back 
exhausted  long  before  he  had  reached  the  Blue 
Ridge  ;  for  what  foe  is  so  pertinacious  as  a  strange 
and  savage  continent  ?  In  pithy  terms  does  Anas 
Todkill,  one  of  the  first  colonists,  express  himself 
about  these  wild  projects :  "  Now  was  there  no 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  POWHATANS.      117 

way  to  make  us  miserable  but  to  neglect  that  time 
to  make  our  provision  whilst  it  was  to  be  had ; 
the  which  was  done  to  perfourme  this  strange  dis- 
covery, but  more  strange  coronation.  To  lose  that 
time,  spend  that  victuall  we  had,  tire  and  starue 
our  men,  having  no  means  to  carry  victuall,  munu 
tion,  the  hurt  or  sicke,  but  their  own  backes  :  how 
or  by  whom  they  were  invented  I  know  not.'" 
How  eloquent  in  grief  and  indignation  are  these 
rugged  phrases !  A  modern  writer,  an  accom- 
plished Oxford  scholar,  expresses  the  opinion  that 
the  coronation  of  The  Powhatan,  although  "an 
idle  piece  of  formality,"  "  had  at  least  the  merit  of 
winning  and  retaining  the  loyalty  of  the  savage."  l 
Master  Todkill  thought  differently  :  "  as  Todkm.s 
for  the  coronation  of  Powhatan  and  his  comPlaint- 
presents  of  bason,  ewer,  bed,  clothes,  and  such 
costly  nouelties ;  they  had  bin  much  better  well 
spared  than  so  ill  spent ;  for  we  had  his  favour 
much  better  onlie  for  a  poore  peece  of  copper,  till 
this  stately  kinde  of  soliciting  made  him  so  much 
overvalue  himselfe,  that  he  respected  vs  as  much 
as  nothing  at  all."  2 

When  Newport  sailed  for  England,  he  took  with 
him  Ratcliffe,  the  deposed  president,  a  man  of 
doubtful  character  of  whom  it  was  said  that  he  had 
reasons  for  using  an  alias,  his  real  name  being 
Sickelmore.  Deposed  presidents  were  liable  to 
serve  as  tale-bearers  and  mischief-makers.  Wing- 
field  had  gone  home  on  the  previous  voyage,  and 
Newport  had  brought  back  to  Virginia  complaints 

1  Doyle's  Virginia,  p.  124. 

2  Smith's  Works,  p.  122. 


118     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

from  the  Company  about  the  way  in  which  things 
had  been  managed.  Now  Smith  sent  to  London 
smith's  map  by  Newport  his  new  map  of  Virginia  em- 
of  Virginia.  |)O^ymg  the  results  of  his  recent  voyages 
of  exploration,  a  map  of  remarkable  accuracy  and 
witness  to  an  amount  of  original  labour  that  is 
marvellous  to  think  of.  That  map  is  a  living  refu- 
tation of  John  Smith's  detractors ;  none  but  a  man 
of  heroic  mould  could  have  done  the  geographical 
work  involved  in  making  it. 

With  the  map  Smith  sent  what  he  naively  calls 
his  "  Rude  Answer "  to  the  London  Company,  a 
paper  bristling  with  common-sense  and  not  timid 
when  it  comes  to  calling  a  spade  a  spade.  With 
some  topics  suggested  by  this  "  Rude  Answer  "  we 
shall  concern  ourselves  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   STARVING  TIME. 

THE  men  of  bygone  days  were  quite  as  fond  as 
ourselves  of  playing  with  names,  and  the  name 
of  Christopher,  or  "  Christ-bearer,"  was  a  favourite 
subject  for  such  pastime.  The  old  Syrian  saint 
and  martyr  was  said  to  have  forded  a  river  carry- 
ing Christ  on  his  back  in  the  form  of  a  child ; 
and  so  when  in  the  year  1500  Columbus's  famous 
pilot,  Juan  de  La  Cosa,  made  his  map  of  the  new 
discoveries,  and  came  to  a  place  where  he  did  not 
know  how  to  draw  his  coast-line,  he  filled 
the  space  with  a  picture  of  the  new  Chris-  christo- 
topher  wading  in  mid-ocean  and  bring- 
ing over  Christ  to  the  heathen.  At  the  court 
of  James  I.  it  was  fashionable  to  make  similar 
mild  jests  upon  the  name  of  Captain  Christopher 
Newport,  whose  ships  were  carrying  year  by  year 
the  gospel  to  the  tawny  natives  of  Virginia.  Very 
little  of  the  good  tidings,  however,  had  the  poor 
heathen  of  Pamunkey  and  Werowocomoco  as  yet 
received.  So  much  ado  had  the  English  colonists 
to  keep  their  own  souls  from  quitting  their  bodies 
that  they  had  little  leisure  to  bestow  upon  the  spir- 
itual welfare  of  the  Indians.  By  the  accident  of 
Smith's  capture  and  the  intercession  of  Pocahon- 
tas,  they  had  effected  a  kind  of  alliance  with  the 


120   OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

most  powerful  tribe  in  that  part  of  the  country, 

and  this  alliance  had  proved  extremely  valuable 

throughout   the   year  1608;   without  it 

Value  of  the       ->       ->•     •>  -,  •  • 

Indian  aiii-  the  little  colony  might  have  perished  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  the  Second  Supply. 
Nevertheless  the  friendship  of  the  red  men  was  a 
very  uncertain  and  precarious  factor  in  the  situa- 
tion. The  accounts  of  the  Englishmen  show  con- 
fused ideas  as  to  the  relations  between  the  tribes 
and  chieftains  of  the  region ;  and  as  for  the  In- 
dians, their  acquaintanceship  with  white  men  was 
so  recent  that  there  was  no  telling  what  unfore- 
seen circumstance  might  at  any  time  determine 
their  actions.  The  utmost  sagacity  was  needed  to 
retain  the  slight  influence  already  acquired  over 
them,  while  to  alienate  them  might  easily  prove 
fatal.  The  colony  was  far  from  able  to  support 
itself,  and  as  things  were  going  there  seemed  little 
hope  of  improvement.  The  difficulties  involved 
in  the  founding  of  colonies  were  not  well  under- 
stood, and  the  attempts  to  cope  with  them  were 
unintelligent. 

In  the  lists  of  these  earliest  parties  of  settlers  one 
cannot  fail  to  notice  the  preponderance  of  those 
who  are  styled  gentlemen,  an  epithet  which  in  those 
days  was  not  lavishly  and  indiscriminately  but 
charily  and  precisely  applied.  As  a  rule  the  per- 
sons designated  as  gentlemen  were  not  accustomed 
to  manual  labour.  To  meet  the  requirements  of 
these  aristocratic  members  of  the  community,  we 
find  in  one  of  the  lists  the  name  of  a  dealer  in  per- 
fumes. A  few  score  of  farmers,  with  abundance 
of  live-stock,  would  have  been  far  more  to  the 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  121 

purpose.  Yet  let  us  do  justice  to  the  gentlemen. 
One  of  the  first  company  of  settlers,  the  Gentlemen 
sturdy  soldier  Anas  Todkill,  thus  testi-  ""P™6618- 
fies  to  their  good  spirit  and  efficiency  :  "  Thirty 
of  us  [President  Smith]  conducted  5  myles  from 
the  fort,  to  learn  to  ...  cut  down  trees  and  make 
clapboard.  .  .  .  Amongst  the  rest  he  had  chosen 
Gabriel  Beadell  and  John  Russell,  the  only  two 
gallants  of  this  last  supply  [he  means  October, 
1608]  and  both  proper  gentlemen.  Strange  were 
these  pleasures  to  their  conditions;  yet  lodging, 
eating  and  drinking,  working  or  playing,  they 
[were]  but  doing  as  the  President  did  himselfe. 
All  these  things  were  carried  on  so  pleasantly  as 
within  a  week  they  became  masters;  making  it 
their  delight  to  heare  the  trees  thunder  as  they 
fell ;  but  the  axes  so  oft  blistered  their  tender  fin- 
gers that  many  times  every  third  blow  had  a  loud 
othe  to  drowne  the  eccho ;  for  remedie  of  which 
sinne,  the  President  devised  how  to  have  every 
man's  othes  numbred,  and  at  night  for  every  othe 
to  have  a  cann  of  water  powred  downe  his  sleeue, 
with  which  every  offender  was  so  washed  (himselfe 
and  all)  that  a  man  should  scarce  hear  an  othe  in 
a  weeke. 

For  he  who  scorns  and  makes  but  jests  of  cursings  and  his  othe, 
He  doth  contemne,  not  man  but  God ;  nor  God,  nor  man,  but 
both. 

By  this  let  no  man  thinke  that  the  President  and 
these  gentlemen  spent  their  time  as  common  wood- 
hackers  at  felling  of  trees,  or  such  other  like  la- 
bours ;  or  that  they  were  pressed  to  it  as  hirelings 
or  common  slaues ;  for  what  they  did,  after  they 


122     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

were  but  once  a  little  invred,  it  seemed  and  some 
conceited  it  only  as  a  pleasure  and  recreation:  .  .  . 
30  or  40  of  such  voluntary  gentlemen  would  doe 
more  in  a  day  than  100  of  the  rest  that  must  be 
prest  to  it  by  compulsion."  Nevertheless,  adds 
this  ingenuous  writer,  "  twentie  good  workmen  had 
been  better  than  them  all."  1 

One  strong  motive  which  drew  many  of  these 
gentlemen  to  the  New  World,  like  the  Castilian 
hidalgos  of  a  century  before,  was  doubtless  the 
mere  love  of  wild  adventure.  Another  motive  was 

the  quest  of  the  pearls  and  gold  about 
gold  that       which  the  poet  Dray  ton  had  written.    In 

the  spring  of  1608,  while  Newport  was 
on  the  scene  with  his  First  Supply,  somebody  dis- 
covered a  bank  of  bright  yellow  dirt,  and  its 
colour  was  thought  to  be  due  to  particles  of  gold. 
Then  there  was  clatter  and  bustle  ;  "  there  was  no 
thought,  no  discourse,  no  hope,  and  no  work  but 
to  dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine  gold,  and  load  gold." 
In  the  list  of  the  First  Supply  we  find  the  names 
of  two  goldsmiths,  two  refiners,  and  one  jeweller ; 2 
but  such  skill  as  these  artisans  had  was  of  little 
avail,  for  Newport  carried  a  shipload  of  the  yellow 
stuff  to  London,  and  found,  to  his  chagrin,  that 
all  is  not  gold  that  glitters.  On  that  same  voyage 
he  carried  home  a  coop  of  plump  turkeys,  the  first 
that  ever  graced  an  English  bill  of  fare.  Smith 
seems  early  to  have  recovered  from  the  gold  fever, 
and  to  have  tried  his  hand  at  various  industries. 
If  precious  metals  could  not  be  found,  there  was 
plenty  of  excellent  timber  at  hand.  The  produc- 
1  Smith's  Works,  p.  439.  2  Id.  p.  108. 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  123 

tion  of  tar  and  soap  was  also  attempted,  as  well 
as  the  manufacture  of  glass,  to  assist  in  Glass  ^ 
which  eight  Germans  and  Poles  were  80ap> 
brought  over  in  the  Second  Supply.  It  was  hardly 
to  be  expected  that  such  industries  should  attain 
remunerative  proportions  in  the  hands  of  a  little 
company  of  settlers  who  were  still  confronted  with 
the  primitive  difficulty  of  getting  food  enough  to 
keep  themselves  alive.  The  arrival  of  reinforce- 
ments was  far  from  being  an  unmixed  benefit. 
Each  new  supply  brought  many  new  mouths  to  be 
filled,  while  by  the  time  the  ship  was  ready  to  sail 
for  England,  leaving  all  the  provisions  it  could 
safely  spare,  the  remnant  was  so  small  that  the 
gaunt  spectre  of  threatening  famine  was  never 
quite  out  of  sight.  Moreover  the  new-comers  from 
the  civilized  world  arrived  with  their  heads  full  of 
such  wild  notions  as  the  older  settlers  were  begin- 
ning to  recover  from  under  the  sharp  lessons  of 
experience  ;  thus  was  confusion  again  and  again 
renewed.  While  the  bitter  tale  was  being  enacted 
in  the  wilderness,  people  in  London  were  wonder- 
ing why  the  symptoms  of  millennial  happiness 
were  so  slow  in  coming  from  this  Virginian  para- 
dise. From  the  golden  skewers  and  dripping-pans 
adorning  the  kitchens  of  barbaric  potentates,1  or 
the  priceless  pearls  that  children  strolling  on  the 
beach  could  fill  their  aprons  with,  the  de- 
scent to  a  few  shiploads  of  ignoble  rough  m^t^f  "he 
boards  and  sassafras  was  truly  humiliat- 
ing. No  wonder  that  the  Company  should  have 
been  loth  to  allow  tales  of  personal  peril  in  Vir- 
1  See  above,  p.  58. 


124     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ginia  to  find  their  way  into  print.  No  wonder 
that  its  directors  should  have  looked  with  rueful 
faces  at  the  long  columns  of  outgoes  compared  with 
the  scant  and  petty  entries  on  the  credit  side  of 
the  ledger.  No  wonder  if  they  should  have  arrived 
at  a  state  of  impatience  like  that  of  the  urchin 
who  has  planted  a  bed  full  of  seed  and  cannot  be 
restrained  from  digging  them  up  to  see  what  they 
are  coming  to.  At  such  times  there  is  sure  to  be 
plenty  of  fault-finding ;  disappointment  seeks  a 
vent  in  scolding.  We  have  observed  that  Wing- 
field,  the  deposed  president,  had  returned  to  Eng- 
land early  in  1608  ;  with  him  went  Captain  Gabriel 
Archer,  formerly  a  student  of  law  at  Gray's  Inn, 
and  one  of  the  earliest  members  of  the  legal 
profession  in  English  America.  His  name  is  com- 
memorated in  the  little  promontory  near  James- 
town called  Archer's  Hope.  He  was  a  mischief- 
maker  of  whom  Wingfield  in  his  "  Discourse  of 
Virginia  "  speaks  far  more  bitterly  than  of  Smith. 
To  the  latter  Archer  was  an  implacable  enemy. 
On  the  return  of  Smith  from  his  brief  captivity 
with  the  Indians,  this  crooked  Archer  exhibited 
his  legal  ingenuity  in  seeking  to  revive  a  provision 
in  the  laws  of  Moses  that  a  captain  who  leads  his 
men  into  a  fatal  situation  is  responsible  for  their 
death.  By  such  logic  Smith  would  be 
and  com-  responsible  for  the  deaths  of  his  follow- 
ers slain  by  Opekankano's  Indians  ;  there- 
fore, said  Archer,  he  ought  to  be  executed  for  mur- 
der !  President  Ratcliffe,  alias  Sickelmore,  appears 
to  have  been  a  mere  tool  in  Archer's  hands,  and 
Smith's  life  may  really  have  been  in  some  danger 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  125 

when  Newport's  arrival  discomfited  his  adversaries. 
One  can  see  what  kind  of  tales  such  an  unscrupu- 
lous enemy  would  be  likely  to  tell  in  London,  and 
it  was  to  be  expected  that  Newport,  on  arriving 
with  his  Second  Supply,  would  bring  some  mes- 
sage that  Smith  would  regard  as  unjust.  The 
nature  of  the  message  is  reflected  in  the  reply 
which  Smith  sent  home  by  Newport  in  November, 
1608.  The  wrath  of  the  much-enduring  man 
was  thoroughly  aroused ;  in  his  "  Rude 
Answer,"  as  he  calls  it,  he  strikes  out  "Rude 
from  the  shoulder,  and  does  not  even 
spare  his  friend  Newport  for  bringing  such  mes- 
sages. Thus  does  he  address  the  Royal  Council 
of  Virginia,  sitting  in  London :  "  Right  Honour- 
able Lords  and  Gentlemen :  I  received  your  letter 
wherein  you  write  that  our  minds  are  so  set  upon 
faction  and  idle  conceits,  .  .  .  and  that  we  feed 
you  but  with  ifs  and  ands,  hopes,  and  some  few 
proofes ;  as  if  we  would  keep  the  mystery  of  the 
businesse  to  ourselues ;  and  that  we  must  expresly 
follow  your  instructions  sent  by  Captain  Newport, 
the  charge  of  whose  voyage  amounts  to  neare 
.£2000  the  which  if  we  cannot  defray  by  the  ship's 
returne,  we  are  like  to  remain  as  banished  men. 
To  these  particulars  I  humbly  intreat  your  par- 
dons if  I  offend  you  with  my  rude  answer. 

"  For  our  factions,  vnlesse  you  would  haue  me 
run  away  and  leaue  the  country,  I  can- 
not prevent  them :  ...  I  do  make  many  prevent 
stay  that  would  els  fly  anywhither.  .  .  .   q 
[As  to  feeding]   you  with   hopes,  etc.,   though  I 
be  no  scholar,  I  am  past  a  school-boy ;  and  I  desire 


126     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

but  to  know  what  either  you  [or]  these  here  do 
know  but  I  have  learned  to  tell  you  by  the  con- 
tinual hazard  of  my  life.  I  have  not  concealed 
from  you  anything  I  know ;  but  I  feare  some 
cause  you  to  believe  much  more  than  is  true. 

"  Expressly  to  follow  your  directions  by  Captain 
Newport,  though  they  be  performed,  I  was  directly 
Tour  in-  against  it ;  but  according  to  our  Corn- 
were  not8  mission,  I  was  content  to  be  ruled  by  the 
major  part  of  the  council,  I  fear  to  the 
hazard  of  us  all ;  which  now  is  generally  confessed 
when  it  is  too  late.  ...  I  have  crowned  Powhatan 
according  to  your  instructions.  For  the  charge 
of  this  voyage  of  £2000  we  have  not  received  the 
value  of  <£100.  .  .  .  For  him  at  that  time  to  find 
.  .  .  the  South  Sea,  [or]  a  mine  of  gold,  or  any 
of  them  sent  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh :  at  our  con- 
sultation I  told  them  was  as  likely  as  the  rest. 
But  during  this  great  discovery  of  thirty  miles 
(which  might  as  well  have  been  done  by  one  man, 
and  much  more,  for  the  value  of  a  pound  of  copper 
at  a  seasonable  time)  they  had  the  pinnace  and  all 
the  boats  with  them  [save]  one  that  remained  with 
me  to  serve  the  fort. 

"  In  their  absence  I  followed  the  new  begun 
works  of  pitch  and  tar,  glass,  soap  ashes,  and  clap- 
Fromourin-  board ;  whereof  some  small  quantities  we 


sider  what  an  infinite  toil  it  is  in  Russia 
and    Swedeland,    where   the   woods   are 
proper  for  naught  else,  and  though  there   be  the 
help  both  of  man  and  beast  in  those  ancient  com- 
monweals  which   many   an   hundred   years  have 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  127 

[been]  used  [to]  it ;  yet  thousands  of  those  poor 
people  can  scarce  get  necessaries  to  live  but  from 
hand  to  mouth.  And  though  your  factors  there 
can  buy  as  much  in  a  week  as  will  fraught  you  a 
ship  .  .  .  ;  you  must  not  expect  from  us  any  such 
matter,  which  are  but  a  many  of  ignorant  misera- 
ble souls,  that  are  scarce  able  to  get  wherewith  to 
live  and  defend  ourselves  against  the  inconstant 
salvages  ;  finding  but  here  and  there  a  tree  fit  foi 
the  purpose,  and  want  [ing]  all  things  else  [which] 
the  Russians  have. 

"For  the  coronation  of  Powhatan,  by  whose 
advice  you  sent  him  such  presents  I  know  not ; 
but  this  give  me  leave  to  tell  you,  I  fear  ^^^  we 
they  will  be  the  confusion  of  us  all  ere  ^tot* 
we  hear  from  you  again.  At  your  ship's  food> 
arrival  the  salvages's  harvest  was  newly  gathered 
and  we  [were]  going  to  buy  it ;  our  own  not  being 
half  sufficient  for  so  great  a  number.  As  for  the 
two  [shiploads]  of  corn  [which]  Newport  prom- 
ised to  provide  us  from  Powhatan,1  he  brought  us 
but  14  bushels  .  .  .  [while  most  of  his  men  were] 
sick  and  near  famished.  From  your  ship  we  had 
not  provision  in  victuals  worth  <£20,  and  we  are 
more  than  200  to  live  upon  this  ;  the  one  half  sick, 
the  other  little  better.  .  .  .  Our  diet  is  a  little 
meal  and  water,  and  not  sufficient  of  that.  Though 
there  be  fish  in  the  sea,  fowls  in  the  air,  and  beasts 
in  the  woods,  their  bounds  are  so  large,  they  so 
wild,  and  we  so  weak  and  ignorant  that  we  cannot 
much  trouble  them. 

1  Smith  here  means  the  village  of  that  name,  on  the  James 
River,  near  the  site  of  Richmond.     See  above,  p.  94. 


128     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

"  The  soldiers  say  many  of  your  officers  main- 
tain their  families  out  of  that  you  send  us ;  and 

that  Newport  hath  X100  a  year  for  carry- 
peculation  .  r»  j.  •  T>  A  IMS  • 

and  intrigue  ing  news.  .  .  .  Captain  Katclitte  is  now 

called  Sickelmore,  a  poor  counterfeited 
imposture.  I  have  sent  you  him  home,  lest  the 
company  [here]  should  cut  his  throat.  What  he 
is  now,  every  one  can  tell  you.  If  he  and  Archer 
return  again,  they  are  sufficient  to  keep  us  always 
in  factions. 

"  When  you  send  again  I  intreat  you  [to]  send 
but  30  carpenters,  husbandmen,  gardeners,  fisher- 
Sendusnext  men?  blacksmiths,  masons,  and  diggers 
useful0™6  UP  °f  trees'  roots,  well  provided,  [rather] 
workmen.  than  ^QQQ  of  ^ch  as  we  have ;  for  except 

we  be  able  both  to  lodge  them  and  feed  them,  the 
most  will  consume  with  want  of  necessaries  before 
they  can  be  made  good  for  anything.  .  .  .  And 
I  humbly  entreat  you  hereafter,  let  us  know  what 
we  [are  to]  receive,  and  not  stand  to  the  sailors's 
courtesy  to  leave  us  what  they  please.  .  .  . 

"  These  are  the  causes  that  have  kept  us  in  Vir- 
ginia from  laying  such  a  foundation  [as]  ere  this 
might  have  given  much  better  content  and  satis- 
faction ;  but  as  yet  you  must  not  look  for  any 
profitable  returns  ;  so  I  humbly  rest." l 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  insinuation  that  some 
of  the  Company's  officers  were  peculators  was  ill 
A  sensible  f ounded  ;  as  for  the  fling  at  Newport,  it 
was  evidently  made  in  a  little  fit  of  petu- 
lance and  is  inconsistent  with  the  esteem  in  which 
Smith  really  held  that  worthy  mariner.  These  are 
i  Smith's  Works,  pp.  442-445. 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  129 

slight  blemishes  in  a  temperate,  courageous,  and 
manly  letter.  It  is  full  of  hard  common-sense  and 
tells  such  plain  truths  as  must  have  set  the  Com- 
pany thinking.  It  was  becoming  evident  to  many 
persons  in  London  that  some  new  departure  must 
be  made.  But  before  Newport's  home-bound  ship 
could  cross  the  ocean,  and  before  the  Company 
could  decide  upon  its  new  plan  of  operations,  some 
months  must  needs  elapse,  and  in  the  interim  we 
will  continue  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  little 
colony,  now  left  to  itself  in  the  wilderness  for  the 
third  time. 

It  is  evident  from  Smith's  letter  that  he  antici- 
pated trouble  from  the  Indians.  In  The  Pow- 
hatan's  promise  to  count  him  forever  as  his  own 
son  he  put  little  faith.  His  own  view  of  the  noble 
savage  seems  to  have  been  much  the  same  as  that 
expressed  about  this  time  by  Rev.  Richard  Hak- 
luyt,  in  a  letter  of  advice  and  warning  to  the  Lon- 
don Company:  "But  for  all  their  fair  Richard 
and  cunning  speeches,  [these  natives]  ^JS^11 
are  not  overmuch  to  be  trusted ;  for  they  character- 
be  the  greatest  traitors  of  the  world,  as  their  mani- 
fold most  crafty  contrived  and  bloody  treasons 
...  do  evidently  prove.  They  be  also  as  uncon- 
stant  as  the  weathercock,  and  most  ready  to  take 
all  occasions  of  advantages  to  do  mischief.  They 
are  great  liars  and  dissemblers ;  for  which  faults 
oftentimes  they  had  their  deserved  payments.  .  .  . 
To  handle  them  gently,  while  gentle  courses  may 
be  found  to  serve,  .  .  .  will  be  without  comparison 
the  best;  but  if  gentle  polishing  will  not  serve, 
[we]  shall  not  want  hammerers  and  rough  masons 


130     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

enow  —  I  mean  our  old  soldiers  trained  up  in  the 
Netherlands  —  to  square  and  prepare  them  to  our 
Preacher's  hands."  1 

There  is  something  delicious  in  the  nai've  prompt- 
ness with  which  this  worthy  clergyman  admits  the 
probable  need  of  prescribing  military  measures  as 
a  preparation  for  the  cure  of  souls.  The  London 
Company  may  have  stood  in  need  of  such  advice ; 
Smith  did  not.  He  looked  upon  Indians  already 
with  the  eyes  of  a  frontiersman,  and  the  rough 
vicissitudes  of  his  life  had  made  him  quick  to 
what  smith  interpret  signs  of  mischief.  It  was  not 
dreaded.  SQ  muc\l  a  direct  assault  that  he  feared 
as  a  contest  arising  from  the  Indians'  refusal  to 
sell  their  corn.  During  the  past  winter  Poca- 
hontas  had  made  frequent  and  regular  visits  to 
Jamestown,  bringing  corn  and  occasionally  veni- 
son, raccoons,  and  other  game ;  and  this  aid  had 
been  so  effective  as  to  ward  off  famine  for  that 
season.  But  a  change  had  come  over  her  father 
and  his  councillors.  As  the  English  kept  strength- 
ening their  fortifications  and  building  houses,  as 
the  second  and  third  shiploads  of  colonists  arrived, 
the  Indians  must  have  begun  to  realize  that  it  was 
their  intention  to  stay  in  the  country.  On  Smith's 
first  visit  to  Werowocomoco,  when  The  Powhatan 
said  that  he  should  henceforth  regard  him  as  a 
son,  he  showed  himself  extremely  curious  to  know 
why  the  English  had  come  to  his  part  of  the 
world.  Smith  did  not  think  it  safe  to  confess  that 
they  had  come  to  stay ;  so  he  invented  a  story  of 
their  having  been  defeated  by  the  Spaniards  and 

1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  28. 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  131 

driven  ashore ;  then,  he  added,  the  pinnace  being 
leaky,  they  were  obliged    to    stay   until 
their  Father  Newport  should  come  back  men's  views 
and  get  them  and  take  them  away.    Since  tion  were 

-  •          T-I     i  IT  11     changed. 

that  conversation  .bather  .Newport  had 
come  twice,  and  each  time  he  had  brought  many 
of  his  children  and  taken  away  but  few.  Instead 
of  38  men  at  Jamestown  there  were  now  200. 
Every  painted  and  feathered  warrior  knew  that 
these  pale  children  were  not  good  farmers,  and 
that  their  lives  depended  upon  a  supply  of  corn. 
By  withholding  this  necessary  of  life,  how  easy  it 
might  be  to  rid  the  land  of  their  presence ! 

As  the  snows  began  to  come,  toward  Christ- 
mas of  1608,  Smith's  fears  began  to  be  realized. 
When  the  Indians  were  asked  for  corn  they  re- 
fused with  a  doggedness  that  withstood  even  the 
potent  fascination  of  blue  glass  beads.  Smith 
fully  comprehended  the  seriousness  of  the  situa- 
tion. "  No  persuasion,"  he  says,  "  could  persuade 
him  to  starve."  If  the  Indians  would  Aboidre- 
not  trade  of  their  own  free  will  they  80lve> 
must  be  made  to  trade.  The  Powhatan  asked  for 
some  men  who  could  aid  him  in  building  a  house, 
and  Smith  sent  to  Werowocomoco  fourteen  men, 
including  four  of  the  newly  arrived  Germans. 
Smith  followed  with  twenty-seven  men  in  the  pin- 
nace and  barge.  In  the  party  were  George  Percy 
and  Francis  West,  brother  of  the  Lord  Delaware 
of  whom  we  shall  have  soon  to  speak.  At  War- 
rasqueak  Bay,  where  they  stopped  the  first  night, 
a  chieftain  told  them  to  beware  of  treachery  at 
Werowocomoco ;  The  Powhatan,  he  said,  had  con- 


132     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

cocted  a  scheme  for  cutting  their  throats.     Cap- 
tain Smith  thanked  the  redskin  for  his  good  coun- 
sel,  assured   him   of   his   undying   affection,  and 
proceeded  down  the  river  to  Hampton, 

Voyage  to  .  -1 . 

Werowoco-     where  he  was  very  hospitably  entertained 

moco 

by  the  Kecoughtans,  a  small  tribe  num- 
bering about  twenty  warriors.  For  about  a  week, 
from  December  30,  1608,  till  January  6,  1609, 
a  fierce  blizzard  of  snow  and  sleet  obliged  the 
party  to  stay  in  the  dry  and  well-warmed  wig- 
wams of  the  Kecoughtans,  who  regaled  them  with 
oysters,  fish,  venison,  and  wild  fowl.  As  they 
passed  around  to  the  northern  side  of  the  penin- 
sula and  approached  the  York  River,  the  Indians 
seemed  less  friendly.  When  they  arrived  at  We- 
rowocomoco  the  river  was  frozen  for  nearly  half 
a  mile  from  the  shore,  but  Smith  rammed  and 
broke  the  ice  with  his  barge  until  he  had  pushed 
up  to  a  place  where  it  was  thick  enough  to  walk 
safely ;  then  sending  the  barge  back  to  the  pin- 
nace the  whole  party  were  landed  by  instalments. 
They  quartered  themselves  in  the  first  house  they 
came  to,  and  sent  to  The  Powhatan  for  food.  He 
sent  them  venison,  turkeys,  and  corn-bread. 

The  next  day,  January  13,  the  wily  barbarian 
came  to  see  Smith  and  asked  him  bluntly  how  soon 
he  was  going  away.  He  had  not  asked  the  Eng- 
lish, he  said,  to  come  and  visit  him,  and  he  was 
sure  he  had  no  corn  for  them,  nevertheless  he 
thought  he  knew  where  he  could  get  forty  baskets 
of  it  for  one  good  English  sword  per  basket. 
Hearing  this  speech,  Captain  Smith  pointed  to  the 
new  house  already  begun,  and  to  the  men  whom 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  133 

he  had  sent  to  build  it,  and  said,  "  Powhatan,  I 
am  surprised  to  hear  you  say  that  you  have  not  in- 
vited us  hither;  you  must  have  a  short  memory!" 
At  this  retort  the  old  chieftain  burst  into  fits  of 
laughter,  but  when  he  had  recovered  gravity  it 
appeared  that  his  notions  as  to  a  bargain  re- 
mained unchanged.  He  would  sell  his  corn  for 
swords  and  guns,  but  not  for  copper;  he  could 
eat  corn,  he  could  not  eat  copper.  Then  said  Cap- 
tain Smith,  "Powhatan,  ...  to  testify 

'  J     Smith's  par- 

my  love     for  you]  1  sent  you  my  men  ley  with  The 

J  .      .  .  .  Powhatan. 

for  your  building,  neglecting  mine  own. 
What  your  people  had,  you  have  engrossed,  for- 
bidding them  our  trade ;  and  now  you  think  by 
consuming  the  time  we  shall  consume  for  want, 
not  having  [wherewith]  to  fulfill  your  strange  de- 
mands. As  for  swords  and  guns,  I  told  you  long 
ago  I  had  none  to  spare.  .  .  .  You  must  know 
[that  the  weapons]  I  have  can  keep  me  from 
want ;  yet  steal  or  wrong  you  I  will  not,  nor  dis- 
solve that  friendship  we  have  mutually  promised, 
except  you  constrain  me  by  ...  bad  usage." 
This  covert  threat  was  not  lost  upon  the  keen  bar- 
barian. He  quickly  replied  that  within  two  days 
the  English  should  have  all  the  corn  he  could 
spare,  but  said  he,  "  I  have  some  doubt,  Captain 
Smith,  [about]  your  coming  hither,  [which] 
makes  me  not  so  kindly  seek  to  relieve  you  as  I 
would.  For  many  do  inform  me  [that]  your 
coming  hither  is  not  for  trade,  but  to  invade  my 
people  and  possess  my  country.  [They]  dare  not 
come  to  bring  you  corn,  seeing  you  thus  armed 
with  your  men.  To  free  us  of  this  fear,  leave  your 


134     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

weapons  aboard  [the  ship] ,  for  here  they  are  need- 
less, we  being  all  friends,  and  forever  Powhatans." 
This  last  remark,  that  Smith's  men  were  virtu- 
ally or  constructively  members  of  the  Powhatan 
tribe  is  in  harmony  with  my  suggestion  that  the 
rescue  of  their  leader  by  Pocahontas  a  year  before 
had  directly  led  to  his  adoption,  according  to  the 
usual  Indian  custom  in  such  cases  of  rescue. 
With  many  such  discourses,  says  our  chronicle, 
did  they  spend  the  day  ;  and  on  the  morrow  the 
parley  was  renewed.  Again  and  again  the  old 
chief  insisted  that  before  the  corn  could  be 
brought,  the  visitors  must  leave  their  arms  on 
shipboard  ;  but  Smith  was  not  so  blind  as  to  walk 
into  such  a  trap.  He  said,  "  Powhatan,  .  .  .  the 
vow  I  made  you  of  my  love,  both  myself  and  my 
men  have  kept.  As  for  your  promise,  I  find  it 
every  day  violated  by  some  of  your  subjects  ;  yet 
.  .  .  for  your  sake  only  we  have  curbed  our  thirst- 
ing desire  of  revenge  ;  else  had  they  known  as  well 
the  cruelty  we  use  to  our  enemies  as  our  true  love 
and  courtesy  to  our  friends.  And  I  think  your 
judgment  sufficient  to  conceive  —  as  well  by  the 
adventures  we  have  undertaken  as  by  the  advan- 
tage we  have  [in]  our  arms  [over]  yours  —  that 
had  we  intended  you  any  hurt,  we  could  long  ere 
this  have  effected  it.  Your  people  coming  to 
Jamestown  are  entertained  with  their  bows  and 
arrows,  without  any  exceptions  ;  we  esteeming  it 
with  you  as  it  is  with  us,  to  wear  our  arms  as  our 
A  game  of  apparel."  Having  made  this  hit,  the  cap- 
tain assumed  a  still  loftier  tone.  It 
would  never  do  to  admit  that  this  blessed  corn, 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  135 

though  the  cause  of  so  much  parley,  was  an  indis- 
pensable necessity  for  the  white  men.  "As  for 
your  hiding  your  provisions  ...  we  shall  not  so 
unadvisedly  starve  as  you  conclude  ;  your  friendly 
care  in  that  behalf  is  needless,  for  we  have  [ways 
of  finding  food  that  are  quite]  beyond  your  know- 
ledge." 

The  narrative  which  I  am  here  following1  is 
written  by  William  Phettiplace,  captain  of  the  pin- 
nace, Jeffrey  Abbot,  described  as  sergeant,  and  two 
of  the  original  settlers,  Anas  Todkill  and  Richard 
Wiffin.  Abbot  and  Phettiplace  were  on  the  spot, 
and  the  narrative  was  revised  by  Captain  Smith 
himself,  so  that  it  has  the  highest  kind  of  author- 
ity. One  need  but  examine  the  similar  parleys 
described  so  frequently  by  Francis  Parkman,  to 
realize  the  faithful  accuracy  with  which  these  Eng- 
lishmen portrayed  the  Indian  at  that  early  period 
when  English  experience  of  the  red  man's  ways 
was  only  beginning. 

The  hint  that  perhaps  white  men  could  get 
along  without  his  corn  after  all  seems  to  have 
wrought  its  effect  upon  the  crafty  Powhatan. 
Baskets  filled  with  the  yellow  grain  were  The  com  te 
brought,  and  dickering  as  distinguished  brousht- 
from  diplomacy  began.  Yet  diplomacy  had  not 
quite  given  up  its  game.  With  a  sorrowful  face 
and  many  sighs  the  chief  exclaimed  :  "  Captain 
Smith,  I  never  used  any  chief  so  kindly  as  your- 
self, yet  from  you  I  receive  the  least  kindness  of 
any.  Captain  Newport  gave  me  swords,  copper, 
clothes,  a  bed,  towels,  or  what  [ever]  I  desired; 

1  Smith's  Works,  pp.  448-465. 


136     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ever  taking  what  I  offered  him,  and  would  send 
away  his  guns  when  I  entreated  him.  None  doth 
.  .  .  refuse  to  do  what  I  desire  but  only  you ;  of 
whom  I  can  have  nothing  but  what  you  regard 
not,  and  yet  you  will  have  whatsoever  you  de- 
mand. .  .  .  You  call  me  father,  but  I  see  .  .  . 
you  will  do  what  you  list.  .  .  .  But  if  you  intend 
so  friendly  as  you  say,  send  hence  your  arms  that 
I  may  believe  you." 

Smith  felt  sure  that  this  whimpering  speech  was 
merely  the  cover  for  a  meditated  attack.  Of  his 
thirty-eight  Englishmen  but  eighteen  were  with 
him  at  the  moment.  He  sent  a  messenger  to  his 
vessels,  ordering  all  save  a  guard  of  three  or  four 
men  to  come  ashore,  and  he  set  some  Indians  to 
work  breaking  the  ice,  so  that  the  barge 
of  treach-  could  be  forced  up  near  to  the  bank. 
For  a  little  while  Captain  Smith  and 
John  Russell  were  left  alone  in  a  house  with  The 
Powhatan  and  a  few  squaws,  when  all  at  once  the 
old  chief  slipped  out  and  disappeared  from  view. 
While  Smith  was  talking  with  the  women  a  crowd 
of  armed  warriors  surrounded  the  house,  but  in- 
stantly Smith  and  Russell  sprang  forth  and  with 
drawn  swords  charged  upon  them  so  furiously  that 
they  all  turned  and  fled,  tumbling  over  one  an- 
other in  their  headlong  terror. 

This  incident  gave  the  Englishmen  a  moral  ad- 
vantage. The  Indian  plot,  if  such  it  was,  had 
failed,  and  now  the  red  men  "  to  the  uttermost  of 
their  skill  sought  excuses  to  dissemble  the  matter ; 
and  Powhatan,  to  excuse  his  flight  and  the  sudden 
coming  of  this  multitude,  sent  our  Captain  a  great 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  137 

bracelet  and  a  chain  of  pearl,1  by  an  ancient  orator 
that  bespoke  us  to  this  purpose ;  perceiving  even 
then  from  our  pinnace,  a  barge  and  men  departing 
and  coming  unto  us :  —  Captain  Smith,  A  ^ 
our  [chief]  is  fled;  fearing  your  guns,  BPeaker- 
and  knowing  when  the  ice  was  broken  there  would 
come  more  men,  sent  these  numbers  but  to  guard 
his  corn  from  stealing,  [which]  might  happen  with- 
out your  knowledge.  Now,  though  some  be  hurt 
by  your  misprision,  yet  [The]  Powhatan  is  your 
friend,  and  so  will  forever  continue.  Now  since 
the  ice  is  open  he  would  have  you  send  away  your 
corn,  and  if  you  would  have  his  company  send 
away  also  your  guns."  It  was  ingeniously  if  not 
ingenuously  said,  but  the  concluding  request  re- 
mained unheeded,  and  Smith  never  set  eyes  on  his 
Father  Powhatan  again.  With  faces  frowning, 
guns  loaded  and  cocked,  the  Englishmen  stood  by 
while  a  file  of  Indians  with  baskets  on  their  backs 
carried  down  the  corn  and  loaded  it  into  the 
barge.  The  Indians  were  glad  to  get  safely  done 
with  such  work;  as  the  chronicle  observes,  "we 
needed  not  importune  them  to  make  despatch." 

The  Englishmen  would  at  once  have  embarked, 
but  the  retreating  tide  had  left  the  barge  stranded, 
so  that  it  was  necessary  to  wait  for  the  next  high 
water.  Accordingly  it  was  decided  to  pass  the 
night  in  the  house  where  they  were  already  quar- 
tered, which  was  a  kind  of  outpost  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  main  village,  and  they  sent  word  to 
The  Powhatan  to  send  them  some  supper.  Then 
the  Indians  seem  to  have  debated  the  question 

1  Wampum  is  undoubtedly  meant. 


138     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

whether  it  would  be  prudent  to  surprise  and  slay 
them  while  at  supper  or  afterward  while  asleep. 
But  that  "dearest  jewel,"  Poeahontas,  says  the 
narrative,  "  in  that  dark  night  came  through  the 

irksome  woods,  and  told  our  Captain 
reveals  the  great  cheer  should  be  sent  us  by  and  by ; 

but  Powhatan  and  all  the  power  he  could 
make  would  after  [ward]  come  kill  us  all,  if  [in- 
deed] they  that  brought  it  [did]  not  kill  us  ... 
when  we  were  at  supper.  Therefore  if  we  would 
live  she  wished  us  presently  to  be  gone.  Such 
things  as  she  delighted  in  [we]  would  have  given 
her ;  but  with  the  tears  running  down  her  cheeks 
she  said  she  durst  not  be  seen  to  have  any,  for  if 
Powhatan  should  know  it  she  were  but  dead  ;  and 
so  she  ran  away  by  herself  as  she  came."  Within 
less  than  an  hour  eight  or  ten  stalwart  Indians 
appeared,  bringing  venison  and  other  dainties,  and 
begged  the  English  to  put  out  the  matches  of  their 
matchlocks,  for  the  smell  of  the  smoke  made  them 
sick.  Our  narrator  tells  us  nothing  of  the  sar- 
donic smile  which  we  are  sure  that  he  and  his  com- 
rades can  hardly  have  suppressed.  The  captain 
sent  the  messengers  back  to  Father  Powhatan, 

with  a  concise  but  significant  message : 

Smith'smes-         T.    ,  .  .    .  •    i  ,   i    . 

sage  to  The  "It  he  is  coming  to  visit  me  to-mgnt  let 
him  make  haste,  for  I  am  ready  to  re- 
ceive him."  One  can  imagine  how  such  an  an- 
nouncement would  chill  the  zeal  of  the  Indians. 
A  few  of  their  scouts  prowled  about,  but  the  Eng- 
lish kept  vigilant  guard  till  high  tide  and  then 
sailed  away.  A  queer  interview  it  had  been. 
With  some  of  hell's  fiercest  passions  smouldering 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  139 

beneath  the  surface,  an  explosion  had  been  pre- 
vented by  watchful  tact  on  the  one  side  and  vague 
dread  on  the  other.  Peace  had  been  preserved 
between  the  strange  white  chieftain  and  his  dusky 
father,  and  two  Englishmen  were  left  at  Werowo- 
comoco,  with  the  four  Germans,  to  go  on  with  the 
house-building.  If  our  chronicle  is  to  be  trusted, 
the  Germans  played  a  base  part.  Believing  that 
the  English  colony  would  surely  perish  of  famine, 
they  sought  their  own  profit  in  fraternizing  with 
the  Indians.  So,  no  sooner  had  Smith's  vessels 
departed  from  Werowocomoco  on  their  way  up  to 
Opekankano's  village,  than  two  of  these  "  damned 
Dutchmen,"  as  the  narrator  calls  them,  went  over- 
land to  Jamestown  and  said  that  Captain  Smith 
had  sent  them  for  more  weapons ;  in  this  way  they 
got  a  number  of  swords,  pikes,  muskets,  and  hatch- 
ets, and  traded  them  off  to  the  redskins  at  Wero- 
wocomoco. 

Meanwhile  Smith's  party  arrived  at  Opekanka- 
no's village,  near  the  place  where  the  Pamunkey 
and  Mattapony  rivers  unite  to  form  the  York. 
The  chief  of  the  Pamunkeys  received  them  with 
smiles  and  smooth  words,  but  seems  to  have  medi- 
tated treachery.  At  all  events  the  Englishmen  so 
interpreted  it  when  they  found  themselves  unex- 
pectedly surrounded  by  a  great  crowd  of  armed 
warriors  numbering  several  hundreds.  It  How  o 
was  not  prudent  to  fire  on  such  a  num-  {££j*?t  "™ 
ber  if  it  could  be  avoided ;  actual  blood-  terms> 
shed  might  do  more  harm  than  good ;  a  peaceable 
display  of  boldness  was  better.  It  might  have  been 
and  probably  was  remembered  that  the  Spaniards 


140     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

in  the  West  Indies  had  often  overawed  all  opposi- 
tion by  seizing  the  person  of  the  chief.  After  a 
brief  consultation  Smith,  accompanied  by  West 
and  Percy  and  Russell,  rushed  into  Opekankano's 
house,  seized  him  by  the  long  scalp-lock,  dragged 
him  before  the  astonished  multitude,  and  held  a 
pistol  to  his  breast.  Such  prompt  audacity  was  its 
own  safeguard.  The  corn  was  soon  forthcoming, 
and  the  little  expedition  made  its  way  back  to 
Jamestown,  loaded  with  some  300  bushels  of  it, 
besides  a  couple  of  hundredweight  of  venison  and 
deer  suet.  In  itself  it  was  but  a  trifle  of  a  pound 
of  meat  and  a  bushel  and  a  half  of  grain  for  each 
person  in  the  colony.  But  the  chief  result  was 
the  profound  impression  made  upon  the  Indians. 
A  few  years  later  such  a  bold  treatment  of  them 
would  have  been  attended  with  far  more  difficulty 
and  danger,  would  seldom  indeed  have  been  pos- 
sible. But  in  1609  the  red  man  had  not  yet  learned 
to  gauge  the  killing  capacity  of  the  white  man  ;  he 
was  aware  of  terrible  powers  there  which  he  could 
not  estimate,  and  was  therefore  inclined  to  err 
on  the  side  of  prudence.  This  sudden  irruption 
of  about  forty  white  men  into  the  principal  In- 
dian villages  and  their  masterful  demeanour  there 
seemed  to  show  that  after  all  it  would  be  wiser  to 
have  them  for  friends  than  for  enemies.  A  couple 
of  accidents  confirmed  this  view  of  the  case. 

One  day  as  three  of  the  Chickahominy  tribe 
were  loitering  about  Jamestown,  admiring  the 
rude  fortifications,  one  of  them  stole  a  pistol  and 
fled  to  the  woods  with  it.  His  two  comrades  were 
arrested  and  one  was  held  in  durance,  while  the 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  141 

other  was  sent  out  to  recover  the  pistol.  He  was 
made  to  understand  that  if  he  failed  to  bring  it 
back,  the  hostage  would  be  put  to  death.  As  it 
was  intensely  cold,  some  charcoal  was  charitably 
furnished  for  the  prisoner's  hut.  In  the 

•  •  i'ii  •        Smith  as  a 

evening  his  friend  returned  with  the  pis-  worker  of 

0  ,  *  miracles. 

tol,  and  then  the  prisoner  was  found 
apparently  dead,  suffocated  with  the  fumes  of  the 
charcoal,  whereupon  the  friend  broke  forth  into 
loud  lamentations.  But  the  Englishmen  soon  per- 
ceived that  some  life  was  still  left  in  the  uncon- 
scious and  prostrate  form,  and  Smith  told  the 
wailing  Indian  that  he  could  restore  his  friend  to 
life,  only  there  must  be  no  more  stealing.  Then 
with  brandy  and  vinegar  and  friction  the  failing 
heart  and  arteries  were  stimulated  to  their  work, 
the  dead  savage  came  to  life,  and  the  two  com- 
rades, each  with  a  small  present  of  copper,  went 
on  their  way  rejoicing. 

The  other  affair  was  more  tragic.  An  Indian 
at  Werowocomoco  had  got  possession  of  a  bag  of 
gunpowder,  and  was  playing  with  it  while  his  com- 
rades were  pressing  closely  about  him,  when  all  at 
once  it  took  fire  and  exploded,  killing  three  or  four 
of  the  group  and  scorching  the  rest.  Whereupon 
our  chronicler  tells  us,  "  These  and  other  A  pretty 
such  pretty  accidents  so  amazed  and  af-  accident- 
frighted  Powhatan  and  all  his  people,  that  from 
all  parts  with  presents  they  desired  peace,  return- 
ing many  stolen  things  which  we  never  demanded 
nor  thought  of  ;  and  after  that  ...  all  the  coun- 
try became  absolutely  as  free  for  us  as  for  them- 
selves." 


142     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

The  good  effects  of  this  were  soon  apparent. 
With  his  mind  relieved  from  anxiety  about  the 
Indians,  Smith  had  his  hands  free  for  work  at 
Jamestown.  One  of  the  most  serious  difficulties 
under  which  the  colony  laboured  was  the  commun- 
istic plan  upon  which  it  had  been  started.  The 
settlers  had  come  without  wives  and  children,  and 
each  man  worked  not  to  acquire  property  for  him- 
self and  his  family  but  to  further  the  general  pur- 
poses of  the  colony.  In  planting  corn,  in  felling 
trees,  in  repairing  the  fortifications,  even  in  hunt- 
commun-  ing  or  fishing,  he  was  working  for  the 
community ;  whatsoever  he  could  get  by 
his  own  toil  or  by  trade  with  the  natives  went 
straightway  into  the  common  stock,  and  the  skilful 
and  industrious  fared  no  better  than  the  stupid 
and  lazy.  The  strongest  kind  of  premium  was 
thus  at  once  put  upon  idleness,  which  under  cir- 
cumstances of  extreme  anxiety  and  depression  is 
apt  enough  to  flourish  without  any  premium. 
Things  had  arrived  at  such  a  pass  that  some  thirty 
or  forty  men  were  supporting  the  whole  company 
of  two  hundred,  when  President  Smith  applied  the 
strong  hand.  He  gathered  them  all  together  one 
day  and  plainly  told  them  that  he  was  their  law- 
fully chosen  ruler  and  should  promptly  punish  all 
infractions  of  discipline,  and  they  must  all  under- 
stand that  hereafter  he  that  will  not  work  shall 
not  eat.  His  authority  had  come  to  be  great,  and 
the  rule  was  enforced.  By  the  end  of  April  some 
twenty  houses  had  been  built,  a  well  of  pure  sweet 
water  had  been  dug  in  the  fort,  thirty  acres  or 
more  of  ground  had  been  broken  up  and  planted, 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  143 

and  nets  and  weirs  arranged  for  fishing.  A  few 
hogs  and  fowl  had  been  left  by  Newport,  and  now 
could  be  heard  the  squeals  of  sixty  pigs  and  the 
peeping  of  five  hundred  spring  chickens.  The 
manufacture  of  tar  and  soap-ashes  went  on,  and  a 
new  fortress  was  begun  in  an  easily  defensible 
position  upon  a  commanding  hill. 

This  useful  work  was  suddenly  interrupted  by 
an  unforeseen  calamity.  Rats  brought  from  time 
to  time  by  the  ships  had  quickly  multiplied,  and  in 
April  these  unbidden  guests  were  found  Unbiciden 
to  have  made  such  havoc  in  the  grana-  messmate8- 
ries  that  but  little  corn  was  left.  Harvest  time 
was  a  long  way  off,  and  it  was  necessary  to  pause 
for  a  while  and  collect  provisions.  Several  Indian 
villages  were  again  visited  and  trading  went  on 
amicably,  but  there  was  a  limit  to  the  aid  the  bar- 
barians had  it  in  their  power  to  give,  and  in  the 
quest  of  sustenance  the  settlers  were  scattered. 
By  midsummer  a  few  were  picking  berries  in  the 
woods,  others  were  quartered  among  the  Indians, 
some  were  living  on  oysters  and  caviar,  some  were 
down  at  Point  Comfort  catching  fish,  and  it  was 
these  that  were  the  first  to  hail  the  bark  of  young 
Samuel  Argall,  who  was  coming  for  sturgeon  and 
whatever  else  he  could  find,  and  had  steered  a 
straighter  course  from  London  than  any  Arrival  of 
mariner  before  him.  Argall  brought  let-  ArgaU- 
ters  from  members  of  the  Company  complaining 
that  the  goods  sent  home  in  the  ships  were  not  of 
greater  value  in  the  market,  and  saying  that  Smith 
had  been  accused  of  dealing  harshly  with  the  In- 
dians. This  must  have  referred  to  some  skir- 


144     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

mishes  he  had  had  with  the  liappahannocks  and 
other  tribes  in  the  course  of  his  exploration  of  the 
Chesapeake  waters  during  the  previous  summer. 
Another  piece  of  news  was  brought  by  Argall. 
The  London  Company  had  obtained  a  new  char- 
ter, and  a  great  expedition,  commanded  by  Lord 
Delaware,  was  about  to  sail  for  Virginia. 

This  was  true.     The  experience  of  two  years 

had    convinced    the    Company   that    its    methods 

needed  mending.     In  the  first  place  more  money 

was  needed  and  the  list  of  shareholders 

Second 

charterer  was  greatly  enlarged.  By  the  second 
company,  charter,  dated  May  23,  1609,  the  Com- 

1C09. 

pany  was  made  a  corporation  and  all  its 
members  were  mentioned  by  name.  The  list  was 
headed  by  Robert  Cecil,  Earl  of  Salisbury,  and 
contained  among  other  interesting  names  those  of 
the  philosopher  Bacon  and  of  Sir  Oliver  Crom- 
well, from  whose  nephew,  then  a  lad  at  Hunting- 
don School,  the  world  was  by  and  by  to  hear.  On 
the  list  we  find  the  names  of  659  persons,  of  whom 
21  were  peers,  96  wore  knights,  11  were  clergy- 
men and  physicians,  53  are  described  as  captains, 
28  as  engineers,  58  as  gentlemen,  110  as  mer- 
chants, while  the  remaining  282  are  variously  des- 
ignated or  only  the  name  is  given.  "  Of  these 
about  230  paid  ,£37  10s.  or  more,  about  229  paid 
less  than  X37  10s.,  and  about  200  failed  to  pay 
anything."  1  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  <£37 
10s.  at  that  time  was  equivalent  to  at  least  8750 
of  to-day.  Besides  these  individuals,  the  list  con- 
tains the  companies  of  mercers,  grocers,  drapers, 

1  Brown's  Genesis,  i.  228. 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  145 

fishmongers,  vintners,  brewers,  masons,  lawyers, 
fletchers,  armourers,  and  others,  —  in  all  fifty-six 
companies  of  the  city  of  London.  Such  a  list, 
as  well  as  the  profusion  of  sermons  and  tracts 
on  Virginia  that  were  poured  forth  at  the  time, 
bespeaks  a  general  interest  in  the  enterprise. 
The  Company  was  incorporated  under  the  name 
of  "  The  Treasurer  and  Company  of  Adventurers 
and  Planters  of  the  City  of  London  for  the  First 
Colony  in  Virginia."  Nothing  was  said  about  the 
Second  Colony,  so  that  by  this  charter  the  London 
Company  was  unyoked  from  the  Plymouth  Com- 
pany. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  reorganized  London 
Company  was  to  extend  200  miles  south  and  200 
miles  north  of  Old  Point  Comfort,  which  would 
not  quite  contain  all  of  North  Carolina  but  would 
easily  include  Maryland  and  Delaware.  The  gov- 
ernment of  this  region  was  vested  in  a  -n^,  councU 
supreme  council  sitting  in  London,  the  mLondon- 
constitution  of  which  was  remarkable.  Its  mem- 
bers were  at  the  outset  appointed  by  the  king,  but 
all  vacancies  were  thereafter  to  be  filled  by  the 
vote  of  the  whole  body  of  659  persons  and  56  trade- 
guilds  constituting  the  Company.  The  sole  power 
of  legislation  for  Virginia,  with  the  right  to  appoint 
all  colonial  officers,  was  vested  in  the  council. 
Besides  thus  exercising  entire  sovereignty  over  Vir- 
ginia, the  Company  was  authorized  to  levy  and  col- 
lect custom-house  duties  and  even  to  wage  war  for 
purely  defensive  purposes.  Thus  this  great  corpo- 
ration was  made  virtually  independent  of  Parlia- 
ment, with  a  representative  government  of  its  own. 


146     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

As  for  the  local  government  in  Virginia,  it  was 
entirely  changed.  The  working  of  the  local  coun- 
The  local  cil  wi^  ^8  elected  president  had  been 
government.  simpiy  ludicrous.  Two  presidents  had 
been  deposed  and  sent  home,  while  the  councillors 
had  done  nothing  but  quarrel  and  threaten  each 
other's  lives,  and  one  had  been  shot  for  mutiny. 
Order  and  quiet  had  not  been  attained  until  Presi- 
dent Smith  became  autocratic,  after  the  other 
members  of  the  council  had  departed  or  died. 
Now  the  new  charter  abolished  the  local  council, 
and  the  direct  rule  was  to  be  exercised  by  a  gov- 
ernor with  autocratic  power  over  the  settlers,  but 
responsible  to  the  supreme  council  in  London,  by 
which  he  was  appointed. 

For  the  Company  as  thus  reorganized  the  two 
most  important  executive  offices  were  filled  by 
admirable  appointments.  The  treasurer  was  the 
eminent  merchant  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  of  whom 
some  account  has  already  been  given.  For  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia  the  council  appointed 
Lord  Thomas  West,  third  Baron  Delaware, 

whose  younger  brother,  Francis  West, 
we  have  seen  helping  John  Smith  to  browbeat  the 
Indians  at  Werowocomoco  and  Pamunkey.  This 
Lord  Delaware  belonged  to  a  family  distinguished 
for  public  service.  On  the  mother's  side  he  was 
nearly  related  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  America  he 
is  forever  identified  with  the  history  of  Virginia, 
and  he  has  left  a  name  to  one  of  our  great  rivers, 
to  a  very  interesting  group  of  Indians,  and  to  one 
of  the  smallest  states  in  our  Union.  With  New 
England,  too,  he  has  one  link  of  association  ;  for 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  147 

his  sister,  Penelope  West,  married  Herbert  Pel- 
ham,  and  their  son  was  the  first  treasurer  of  Har- 
vard College.  Thomas  West,  born  in  1577,  was 
educated  at  Oxford,  served  with  distinction  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  was  knighted  for  bravery  in 
1599.  He  succeeded  to  the  barony  of  Delaware 
in  1602,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council 
of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  No  one  was  more 
warmly  enlisted  than  he  in  the  project  of  founding 
Protestant  English  colonies  in  the  New  World. 
To  this  cause  he  devoted  himself  with  ever  grow- 
ing enthusiasm,  and  when  the  London  Company 
was  remodelled  he  was  appointed  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia for  life.  With  him  were  associated  the 
sturdy  soldier,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  as  lieutenant- 
governor,  and  the  old  sea  rover,  Sir  George 
Somers,  as  admiral. 

The  spring  of  1609  was  spent  in  organizing  a 
new  expedition,  while  Smith  and  his  weary  follow- 
ers were  struggling  with  the  damage  wrought  by 
rats.  People  out  of  work  were  attracted  by  the 
communistic  programme  laid  down  by  the  Com* 
pany.  The  shares  were  rated  at  about  $300  each, 
to  use  our  modern  figures,  and  emigration  to 
Virginia  entitled  the  emigrant  to  one  share.  So 
far  as  needful  the  proceeds  of  the  enter- 

...  i  ,  ,        A  comrnun- 

prise  "  were  to  be  spent  upon  the  settle-  istic  pro- 
ment,  and  the  surplus  was  either  to  be  g 
divided  or  funded  for  seven  years.     During  that 
period  the  settlers  were  to  be  maintained  at  the 
expense  of  the  Company,  while  all  the  product 
of  their  labours  was  to  be  cast  into  the  common 
stock.     At  the  end  of  that  time  every  shareholder 


148     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

was  to  receive  a  grant  of  land  in  proportion  to 
his  stock  held."  1  Doubtless  the  prospects  of  be- 
coming a  shareholder  in  a  great  speculative  enter- 
prise, and  of  being  supported  by  the  Company, 
must  have  seemed  alluring  to  many  people  in 
difficult  circumstances.  At  all  events,  some  500 
people  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  were  got 
together.  A  fleet  of  nine  ships,  with  ample  sup- 
plies, was  entrusted  to  Newport,  and  in  his  ship, 
the  Sea  Venture,  were  Gates  and  Somers,  who 
were  to  take  the  colony  under  their  personal  su- 
pervision. Lord  Delaware  remained  in  London, 
planning  further  developments  of  the  enterprise. 
Three  more  trusty  men  he  could  hardly  have  sent 
out.  But  a  strange  fate  was  knocking  at  the 
door. 

On  the  first  of  June,  1609,  the  fleet  set  sail  and 
took  the  route  by  the  Azores.  Toward  the  end  of 
July,  as  they  were  getting  within  a  week's  sail  of 
the  American  coast,  the  ships  were  "  caught  in  the 
tail  of  a  hurricane,"  one  of  them  was  sunk,  and 
wreck  of  the  *ne  ^ea  Venture  was  separated  from  all 

Sea  Venture.    the  regt>       That    gallant    gllip    wag    g()rely 

shaken  and  torn,  so  that  for  five  days  the  crew 
toiled  steadily  in  relays,  pumping  and  baling, 
while  the  water  seemed  to  be  gaining  upon  them. 
Many  of  the  passengers  abandoned  themselves  to 
despair  and  to  rum,  or,  as  an  eye-witness  tells  us, 
"some  of  them,  having  good  and  comfortable 
waters  in  the  ship,  fetched  them  and  drank  one  to 
the  other,  taking  their  last  leave  one  of  the  other 
until  their  more  joyful  and  happy  meeting  in  a 

1  Doyle's  Virginia,  p.  128. 


THE  STARVING  TIME.  149 

more  blessed  world." l  The  company  were  saved 
by  the  skill  and  energy  of  the  veteran  Somers,  who 
for  three  days  and  nights  never  once  left  the  quar- 
ter-deck. At  length  land  was  sighted,  and  pres- 
ently the  Sea  Venture  was  driven  violently  aground 
and  wedged  immovable  between  two  rocks,  a  shat- 
tered wreck.  But  all  her  people,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  or  so,  were  saved,  and  most  of  their  gear  was 
brought  away. 

The  island  on  which  they  were  wrecked  was  one 
of  a  group  the  early  history  of  which  is  shrouded 
in  strange  mystery.  If  my  own  solution  of  an 
obscure  problem  is  to  be  trusted,  these  islands  had 
once  a  fierce  cannibal  population,  whose  first  white 
visitors,  Vincent  Pinzon  and  Americus  Vespucius, 
landed  among  them  on  St.  Bernard's  day  in 
August,  1498,  and  carried  off  more  than  200 
slaves.2  Hence  the  place  was  called  St.  Bernard's 
archipelago,  but  on  crudely  glimmering  maps  went 
wide  astray  and  soon  lost  its  identity,  r^ 
In  1522  a  Spanish  captain,  Juan  Ber-  **"»"*»*• 
mudez,  happened  to  land  there  and  his  name  has 
remained.  But  in  the  intervening  years  Spanish 
slave-hunters  from  San  Domingo  had  infested 
those  islands  and  reaped  and  gleaned  the  harvest 
of  heathen  flesh  till  no  more  was  to  be  had.  The 
ruthless  cannibals  were  extirpated  by  the  more 
ruthless  seekers  for  gold,  and  when  Bermudez 
stopped  there  he  found  no  human  inhabitants,  but 
only  swine  running  wild,  a  sure  witness  to  the 

1  Plain  Description  of  the  Bermudas,  p.  10 ;  apud  Force,  voL 
iii. 

8  See  my  Discovery  of  America,  ii.  59. 


150     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

recent  presence  of  Europeans.  Then  for  nearly  a 
century  the  unvisited  spot  was  haunted  by  the 
echoes  of  a  frightful  past,  wild  traditions  of  ghoul- 
ish orgies  and  infernal  strife.  But  the  kidnapper's 
work  in  which  these  vague  notions  originated  was 
so  soon  forgotten  that  when  the  Sea  Venture  was 
wrecked  those  islands  were  believed  to  have 
been  from  time  immemorial  uninhabited.  Sailors 
shunned  them  as  a  scene  of  abominable  sorceries, 
and  called  them  the  Isles  of  Demons.  Otherwise 
they  were  known  simply  by  the  Spanish  skipper's 
name  as  the  Bermoothes,  afterward  more  com- 
pletely anglicized  into  Bermudas.  From  the  soil 
of  those  foul  goblin  legends,  that  shuddering  remi- 
niscence of  inexpiable  crime,  the  potent  sorcery 
of  genius  has  reared  one  of  the  most  exquisitely 
beautiful,  ethereally  delicate  works  of  human 
fancy  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  wreck  of 
the  Sea  Venture  suggested  to  Shakespeare  many 
hints  for  the  Tempest,  which  was  written  within 
the  next  two  years  and  performed  before  the  king 
in  1611.  It  is  not  that  these  islands  were  con- 
ceived as  the  scene  of  the  comedy ;  the  command 
to  Ariel  to  go  and  "  fetch  dew  from  the  still-vexed 
Bermoothes "  seems  enough  to  show  that  Pros- 
pero's  enchanted  isle  was  elsewhere,  doubtless  in 
some  fairy  universe  hard  by  the  Mediterranean. 
But  from  the  general  conception  of  monsters  of  the 
isle  down  to  such  incidents  as  the  flashing  light  on 
the  shrouds  of  the  ship,  it  is  clear  that  Shakespeare 
made  use  of  Strachey's  narrative  of  the  wreck  of 
the  Sea  Venture,  published  in  1610. 

Gates  and  Somers  found  the  Isles  of  Demons 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  151 

far  pleasanter  than  their  reputation,  and  it  was 
well  for  them  that  it  was  so,  for  they  were  obliged 
to  stay  there  nearly  ten  months,  while 
with  timber  freshly  cut  and  with  bolts  the  pinnaces 
and  beams   from   the   wreck  the   party  town,  May, 

1 P 1 0 

built  two  pinnaces  which  they  named 
Patience  and  Deliverance.  They  laid  in  ample 
stores  of  salted  pork  and  fish,  traversed  the  700 
miles  of  ocean  in  a  fortnight,  and  arrived  at 
Jamestown  on  the  10th  of  May,  1610.  The  spec- 
tacle that  greeted  them  was  enough  to  have  ap- 
palled the  stoutest  heart.  To  explain  it  in  a  few 
words,  we  must  go  back  to  August,  1609,  when 
the  seven  ships  that  had  weathered  the  storm 
arrived  in  Virginia  and  landed  their  300  or  more 
passengers,  known  in  history  as  the  Third  Supply. 
Since  the  new  dignitaries  and  all  their  official 
documents  were  in  the  Bermuda  wreck,  there  was 
no  one  among  the  new-comers  in  Virginia 
competent  to  succeed  Smith  in  the  gov-  the  Third 
ernment,  but  the  mischief-makers,  Eat-  Au^Jt, 

1609 

cliffe  and  Archer,  were  unfortunately 
among  them,  and  the  former  instantly  called  upon 
Smith  to  abdicate  in  his  favour.  He  had  per- 
suaded many  of  the  new-comers  to  support  him, 
but  the  old  settlers  were  loyal  to  Smith,  and  there 
was  much  confusion  until  the  latter  arrested  Rat- 
cliffe  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace.  The  quality  of 
the  new  emigration  was  far  inferior  to  the  older. 
The  older  settlers  were  mostly  gentlemen  of  char- 
acter ;  of  the  new  ones  far  too  many  were  shiftless 
vagabonds,  or,  as  Smith  says,  "  unruly  gallants, 
packed  thither  by  their  friends  to  escape  ill  desti- 


152     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

nies."     They  were  sure  to  make  trouble,  but  for 
a  while  Smith  held  them  in  check.    The  end  of  his 

stay  in  Virginia  was,  however,  approach- 
Smith  «-       .     J     „  '  .  '    J1 
turns  to        ing.     Me  was  determined    to  mid  some 

October,'       better  site   for   a  colony   than   the  low 

1009. 

marshy  Jamestown  ;  so  in  September  he 
sailed  up  to  the  Indian  village  called  Powhatan  and 
bought  of  the  natives  a  tract  of  land  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood near  to  where  Richmond  now  stands,  — 
a  range  of  hills,  salubrious  and  defensible,  with 
so  fair  a  landscape  that  Smith  called  the  place 
Nonesuch.  On  the  way  back  to  Jamestown  a  bag 
of  gunpowder  in  his  boat  exploded  and  wounded 
him  so  badly  that  he  was  completely  disabled. 
The  case  demanded  such  surgery  as  Virginia  could 
not  furnish,  and  as  the  ships  were  sailing  for  Eng- 
land early  in  October  he  went  in  one  of  them.  He 
seems  also  to  have  welcomed  this  opportunity  of 
answering  sundry  charges  brought  against  him  by 
the  Ratcliffe  faction.  Some  flying  squirrels  were 
sent  home  to  amuse  King  James.1 

The  arrival  of  the  ships  in  England,  with  news 
of  the  disappearance  of  the  Sea  Venture  and  the 
LordDeia-  danger  of  anarchy  in  Virginia,  alarmed 
for'vhtfnia,  Lord  Delaware,  and  he  resolved  to  go 
April,  leio.  ag  soon  as  possible  and  take  command  of 
his  colony.  About  the  first  of  April  he  set  sail 
with  about  150  persons,  mostly  mechanics.  He 
had  need  to  make  all  haste.  Jamestown  had  be- 
come a  pandemonium.  Smith  left  George  Percy 
in  command,  but  that  excellent  .gentleman  was  in 
poor  health  and  unable  to  exert  much  authority. 

1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  32. 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  153 

There  were  now  500  mouths  to  be  filled,  and  the 
stores  of  food  diminished  with  portentous  rapid- 
ity. The  "  unruly  gallants  "  got  into  trouble  with 
the  Indians,  who  soon  responded  after  their  man- 
ner. They  slaughtered  the  settlers'  hogs  for  their 
own  benefit,  and  they  murdered  the  settlers  them- 
selves when  opportunity  was  offered.  The  worth- 
less Ratcliffe  and  thirty  of  his  men  were  slain  at 
one  fell  swoop  while  they  were  at  the  Pamunkey 
village,  trading  with  The  Powhatan.1  As  the 
frosts  and  snows  came  more  shelter  was  needed 
than  the  cabins  already  built  could  furnish.  Many 
died  of  the  cold.  The  approach  of  spring  saw  the 
last  supplies  of  food  consumed,  and  famine  began 
to  claim  its  victims.  Soon  there  came  to  be  more 
houses  than  occupants,  and  as  fast  as  one  was 
emptied  by  death  it  was  torn  down  for  firewood. 
Even  palisades  were  stripped  from  their  frame- 
work and  thrown  into  the  blaze,  for  cold  was  a 
nearer  foe  than  the  red  men.  The  latter  Hombie 
watched  the  course  of  events  with  sav-  BUfferins8- 
age  glee,  and  now  and  then,  lurking  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, shot  flights  of  arrows  tipped  with  death. 
A  gang  of  men  stole  one  of  the  pinnaces,  armed 
her  heavily,  and  ran  out  to  sea,  to  help  themselves 
by  piracy.  After  the  last  basket  of  corn  had  been 
devoured,  people  lived  for  a  while  on  roots  and 
herbs,  after  which  they  had  recourse  to  cannibal- 
ism. The  corpse  of  a  slain  Indian  was  boiled  and 
eaten.  Then  the  starving  company  began  cooking 
their  own  dead.  One  man  killed  his  wife  and 

1  See  Spelman'a  account  of  the  affair,  in  Smith's  Works,  pp. 
ciL-cv. 


154     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

salted  her,  and  had  eaten  a  considerable  part  of 
her  body  before  he  was  found  out.  This  was  too 
much  for  people  to  endure  ;  the  man  was  tied  to  a 
stake  and  burned  alive.  Such  were  the  goings  on 
in  that  awful  time,  to  which  men  long  afterward 
alluded  as  the  Starving  Time.  No  wonder  that 
one  poor  wretch,  crazed  with  agony,  cast  his  Bible 
into  the  fire,  crying  "  Alas  I  there  is  no  God." 

When  Smith  left  the  colony  in  October,  it  num- 
bered about  500  souls.  When  Gates  and  Somers 
and  Newport  arrived  from  the  Bermudas  in  May, 
they  found  a  haggard  remnant  of  60  all  told,  men, 
women,  and  children  scarcely  able  to  totter  about 
the  ruined  village,  and  with  the  gleam  of  madness 
in  their  eyes.  The  pinnaces  brought  food  for 
their  relief,  but  with  things  in  such  a  state  there 
was  no  use  in  trying  to  get  through  the  summer. 
The  provisions  in  store  would  not  last  a  month. 
The  three  brave  captains  consulted  together  and 
decided,  with  tears  in  their  eyes,  that  Virginia 
must  be  abandoned.  Since  Raleigh  first  began, 
Virginia  every  attempt  had  ended  in  miserable 
abandoned.  failmQ,  and  this  last  calamity  was  the 
most  crushing  of  all.  What  hope  could  there  be 
that  North  America  would  ever  be  colonized  ? 
What  men  could  endure  more  than  had  been  en- 
dured already?  It  was  decided  to  go  up  to  the 
Newfoundland  fishing  stations  and  get  fish  there, 
and  then  cross  to  England.  On  Thursday  the 
7th  of  June,  1610,  to  the  funereal  roll  of  drums, 
the  cabins  were  stripped  of  such  things  as  could 
be  carried  away,  and  the  doleful  company  went 
aboard  the  pinnaces,  weighed  anchor,  and  started 


THE  STARVING   TIME.  155 

down  the  river.  As  the  arching  trees  at  James- 
town receded  from  the  view  and  the  sombre  si- 
lence of  the  forest  settled  over  the  deserted  spot, 
it  seemed  indeed  that  "  earth's  paradise,"  Virginia, 
the  object  of  so  much  longing,  the  scene  of  so 
much  fruitless  striving,  was  at  last  abandoned  to 
its  native  Indians.  But' it  had  been  otherwise  de- 
creed. That  night  a  halt  was  made  at  Mulberry 
Island,  and  next  morning  the  voyage  was  re- 
sumed. Toward  noonday,  as  the  little  ships  were 
speeding  their  way  down  the  ever  widening  river, 
a  black  speck  was  seen  far  below  on  the  Arrival  of 
broad  waters  of  Hampton  Roads,  and  j££|t  j^ 
every  eye  was  strained.  It  was  no  red  8>  1610- 
man's  canoe.  It  was  a  longboat.  Yes,  Heaven  be 
praised  !  the  governor's  own  longboat  with  a  mes- 
sage. His  three  well-stocked  ships  had  passed 
Point  Comfort,  and  he  himself  was  with  them  ! 

Despair  gave  place  to  exultant  hope,  words  of 
gratitude  and  congratulation  were  exchanged,  and 
the  prows  were  turned  up-stream.  On  Sunday 
the  three  staunch  captains  stood  with  their  fol- 
lowers drawn  up  in  military  array  before  the  dis- 
mantled ruins  of  Jamestown,  while  Lord  Delaware 
stepped  from  his  boat,  and,  falling  upon  his  knees 
on  the  shore,  lifted  his  hands  in  prayer,  thanking 
God  that  he  had  come  in  time  to  save  Virginia. 


CHAPTER  V. 

BEGINNINGS   OF   A   COMMONWEALTH. 

OF  late  years  there  has  been  some  discussion  as 
to  which  of  the  flowers  or  plants  indigenous  to  the 
New  World  might  most  properly  be  selected  as  a 
national  emblem  for  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, and  many  persons  have  expressed  a  preference 
for  that  most  beautiful  of  cereals,  Indian 
corn.  Certainly  it  would  be  difficult  to 
overrate  the  historic  importance  of  this  plant.  Of 
the  part  which  it  played  in  aboriginal  America  I 
have  elsewhere  treated.1  To  the  first  English  set- 
tlers it  was  of  vital  consequence.  But  for  Indian 
corn  the  company  of  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  would 
have  succumbed  to  famine,  like  so  many  other  such 
little  colonies.  The  settlers  at  Jamestown  depended 
upon  corn  from  the  outset,  and  when  the  supply 
stopped  the  Starving  Time  came  quickly.  We  can 
thus  appreciate  the  value  to  the  Pilgrims  of  the  alli- 
ance with  Massasoit,  and  to  the  Virginians  of  the 
amicable  relations  for  some  time  maintained  with 
The  Powhatan.  We  are  also  furnished  with  the 
means  of  estimating  the  true  importance  of  John 
Smith  and  his  work  in  the  first  struggle  of  English 

1  See  my  Discovery  of  America,  i.  27,  28,  and  passim.  For 
a  national  floral  emblem,  however,  the  columbine  (aquilegia)  has 
probably  more  points  in  its  favour  than  any  other. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A    COMMONWEALTH.     157 

civilization  with  the  wilderness.    Whether  we  sup- 
pose that  Smith  in  his  writings  unduly 

,        ,  .  ,  ,  .  Importance 

exalts  his  own  work  or  not,  one  thing  is  of  Smith's 
clear.  It  is  impossible  to  read  his  nar- 
rative without  recognizing  the  hand  of  a  man  su- 
premely competent  to  deal  with  barbarians.  No 
such  character  as  that  which  shines  out  through 
his  pages  could  ever  have  been  invented.  To 
create  such  a  man  by  an  effort  of  imagination 
would  have  been  far  more  difficult  than  to  be  such 
a  man.  One  of  the  first  of  Englishmen  to  deal 
with  Indians,  he  had  no  previous  experience  to  aid 
him ;  yet  nowhere  have  the  red  men  been  more 
faithfully  portrayed  than  in  his  pages,  and  one 
cannot  fail  to  note  this  unrivalled  keenness  of  ob- 
servation, which  combined  with  rare  sagacity  and 
coolness  to  make  him  always  say  and  do  the  right 
things  at  the  right  times.  These  qualities  kept  the 
Indians  from  hostility  and  made  them  purveyors 
to  the  needs  of  the  little  struggling  colony. 

Besides  these  qualities  Smith  had  others  which 
marked  him  out  as  a  natural  leader  of  men.  His 
impulsiveness  and  plain  speaking,  as  well  as  his 
rigid  enforcement  of  discipline,  made  him  some 
bitter  enemies,  but  his  comrades  in  general  spoke 
of  him  in  terms  of  strong  admiration  and  devo- 
tion. His  nature  was  essentially  noble,  and  his 
own  words  bear  witness  to  it,  as  in  the  Nowutyof 
following  exhortation :  "  Seeing  we  are  ^ nature- 
not  born  for  ourselves,  but  each  to  help  other,  and 
our  abilities  are  much  alike  at  the  hour  of  our  birth 
and  the  minute  of  our  death ;  seeing  our  good 
deeds  and  our  bad,  by  faith  in  Christ's  merits,  is 


158     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

all  we  have  to  carry  our  souls  to  heaven  or  to  hell  ; 
seeing  honour  is  our  lives'  ambition,  and  our  am- 
bition after  death  to  have  an  honourable  memory 
of  our  life  ;  and  seeing  by  no  means  we  would  be 
abated  of  the  dignities  and  glories  of  our  prede- 
cessors, let  us  imitate  their  virtues  to  be  worthily 
their  successors."  So  wrote  the  man  of  whom 
Thomas  Fuller  quaintly  said  that  he  had  "  a 
prince's  heart  in  a  beggar's  purse,"  and  to  whom 
one  of  his  comrades,  a  survivor  of  the  Starv- 
ing Time,  afterward  paid  this  touching  tribute : 
"  Thus  we  lost  him  that  in  all  our  proceedings 
made  justice  his  first  guide,  .  .  .  ever  hating  base- 
ness, sloth,  pride,  and  indignity  more  than  any 
dangers ;  that  never  allowed  more  for  himself  than 
his  soldiers  with  him  ;  that  upon  no  danger  would 
send  them  where  he  would  not  lead  them  himself ; 
that  would  never  see  us  want  what  he  either  had 
or  could  by  any  means  get  us ;  that  would  rather 
want  than  borrow,  or  starve  than  not  pay ;  that 
loved  action  more  than  words,  and  hated  falsehood 
and  covetousness  worse  than  death  ;  whose  adven- 
tures were  our  lives  and  whose  loss  our  deaths."  1 

It  is,  indeed,  in  all  probability  true  that  losing 
Smith  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  horrors  of  the 
Starving  Time.  The  colony  was  not  ill  supplied 
when  he  left  it,  in  October,  1609,  for  the  stock  of 
hogs  had  increased  to  about  600,  and  the  Third 
Supply  had  brought  sheep  and  goats  as  well  as 
horses.  All  this  advantage  had  been  destroyed  by 
the  active  hostility  of  the  Indians,  which  was  due 
to  the  outrageous  conduct  of  white  ruffians  whom 

1  Smith's  Works,  p.  486. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     159 

Smith  would  have  restrained  or  punished.  But 
for  this  man's  superb  courage  and  re-  Butfor 
sourcefulness,  one  can  hardly  believe  that  c^jy"18 
the  colony  would  have  lasted  until  1609.  Tbiy  haPve0b" 
More  likely  it  would  have  perished  in  PeriBhed- 
one  of  the  earlier  seasons  of  sore  trial.  It  would 
have  succumbed  like  Lane's  colony,  and  White's, 
and  Pophain's  ;  one  more  would  have  been  added 
to  the  sickening  list  of  failures,  and  the  hopes 
built-  upon  Virginia  in  England  would  have  been 
sadly  dashed.  The  utmost  ingenuity  on  the  part 
of  Smith's  detractors  can  never  do  away  with  the 
fact  that  his  personal  qualities  did  more  than  any- 
thing else  to  prevent  such  a  direful  calamity ;  and 
for  this  reason  he  will  always  remain  a  great  and 
commanding  figure  in  American  history. 

The  arrival  of  Lord  Delaware  in  June,  1610, 
was  the  prelude  to  a  new  state  of  things.  The 
pathetic  scene  in  which  that  high-minded  noble- 
man knelt  in  prayer  upon  the  shore  at  Jamestown 
heralded  the  end  of  the  chaos  through  which  Smith 
had  steered  the  colony.  But  the  change  was  not 
effected  all  in  a  moment.  The  evils  were  too  deep- 
seated  for  that.  There  had  been  three  principal 
sources  of  weakness :  first,  the  lack  of 

.  Three 

a  strong  government  with  unquestioned  sources  of 

.  weakness. 

authority ;  secondly,  the  system  of  com- 
munism in  labour  and  property ;  thirdly,  the  low 
character  of  ^he  emigrants.  This  last  statement 
does  not  apply  to  the  earlier  settlers  so  much  as 
to  those  who  began  to  come  in  1609.  The  earliest 
companies  were  mainly  composed  of  respectable 
persons,  but  as  the  need  for  greater  numbers  grew 


160     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

imperative,  inducements  were  held  out  which  at- 
tracted a  much  lower  grade  of  people.  Neither 
this  evil  nor  the  evils  flowing  from  communism 
were  remedied  during  Lord  Delaware's  brief  rule, 
but  the  first  evil  was  entirely  removed.  In  such 
a  rude  settlement  a  system  by  which  a  council 
elected  its  president  annually,  and  could  depose 
him  at  any  time,  was  sure  to  breed  faction  and 
strife ;  strong  government  had  been  attained  only 
when  the  strong  man  Smith  was  left  virtually 
alone  by  the  death  or  departure  of  the  other  coun- 
cillors. Now  there  was  no  council,  but  instead  of 
it  a  governor  appointed  in  London  and  clothed 
with  despotic  power.  Lord  Delaware  was  a  man 
of  strict  integrity,  kind  and  humane,  with  a  talent 
for  command,  and  he  was  obeyed.  His  first  act  on 
that  memorable  June  Sunday,  after  a  sermon  had 
been  preached  and  his  commission  read,  was  to 
make  a  speech  to  the  settlers,  in  which,  to  cite  his 
own  words,  "  I  did  lay  some  blames  on  them  for 
many  vanities  and  their  idleness,  earnestly  wishing 
that  I  might  no  more  find  it  so,  lest  I  should  be 
Lord  Dei».  compelled  to  draw  the  sword  of  justice 
muiistra?  *°  cu^  °^  such  delinquents,  which  I  had 
tion.  much  rather  draw  in  their  defence  to 

protect  from  enemies." l  Happily  he  was  not 
called  upon  to  draw  it  except  against  the  Indians, 
to  whom  he  administered  some  wholesome  doses  of 
chastisement.  The  colonists  were  kept  at  work, 
new  fortifications  were  erected  and  dismantled 
houses  put  in  repair.  The  little  church  assumed 
a  comfortable  and  dignified  appearance,  with  its 

1  Brown's  Genesis,  i.  407. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     161 

cedar  pews  and  walnut  altar,  its  tall  pulpit  and 
baptismal  font.  The  governor  was  extremely 
fond  of  flowers  and  at  all  services  would  have 
the  church  decorated  with  the  bright  and  fragrant 
wild  growth  of  the  neighbourhood.  At  such  times 
he  always  appeared  in  the  full  dignity  of  velvet 
and  lace,  attended  by  a  body-guard  of  spearmen 
in  scarlet  cloaks.  A  full-toned  bell  was  hung  in 
its  place,  and  daily  it  notified  the  little  industrial 
army  when  to  begin  and  when  to  leave  off  the 
work  of  the  day. 

Discipline  was  rigidly  maintained,  but  the  old 
danger  of  famine  was  not  yet  fully  overcome. 
The  difficulty  was  foreseen  immediately  after  Del- 
aware's arrival,  and  the  veteran  Somers  at  once 
sailed  with  the  two  pinnaces  for  the  Bermudas, 
intending  to  bring  back  a  cargo  of  salted  pork 
and  live  hogs  for  breeding.  His  consort  was  com- 
manded by  Samuel  Argall,  a  young  kinsman  of 
Sir  Thomas  Smith,  the  treasurer  of  the  London 
Company.  The  two  ships  were  parted  by  bad 
weather,  and  Somers,  soon  after  landing  at  Ber- 
muda, fell  sick  and  died,  with  his  last  Death0f 
breath  commanding  his  men  to  fulfil  Sers0fand 
their  errand  and  go  back  to  Virginia.  ArKaU'16i°- 
But  they,  disgusted  with  the  wilderness  and  think- 
ing only  of  themselves,  went  straight  to  England, 
taking  with  them  the  old  knight's  body  embalmed. 
As  for  young  Argall,  the  stress  of  weather  drove 
him  to  Cape  Cod,  where  he  caught  many  fish  ; 
then  cruising  along  the  coast  he  reached  Chesa- 
peake Bay  and  went  up  the  Potomac  River,  where 
he  found  a  friend  in  the  head  sachem  of  the  Poto- 


162     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

mac  tribe  and  bought  as  much  corn  as  his  ship 
could  carry.  With  these  welcome  supplies  Argall 
reached  Jamestown  in  September,  and  then  New- 
port took  the  ships  back  to  England,  carrying  with 
him  Sir  Thomas  Gates  to  make  a  report  of  all  that 
had  happened  and  to  urge  the  Company  to  fresh 
exertions.  The  winter  of  1610-11  was  a  hard 
one,  though  not  to  be  compared  with  the  Starving 
Time  of  the  year  before.  There  were  about  150 
deaths,  and  Lord  Delaware,  becoming  too  ill  to 
discharge  his  duties,  sailed  for  England  in  March, 
1611,  intending  to  send  Gates  immediately  back 
to  Virginia.  George  Percy,  who  had  commanded 
the  colony  through  the  Starving  Time,  was  again 
left  in  charge. 

Meanwhile  the  Company  had  been  bestirring 
itself.  A  survey  of  the  subscription  list  for  that 
winter  shows  that  English  pluck  was  getting 
aroused ;  the  colony  must  be  set  upon  its  feet. 
The  list  of  craftsmen  desired  for  Virginia  is  curi- 
ous and  interesting  :  millwrights,  iron  founders, 
makers  of  edge  tools,  colliers,  woodcutters,  ship- 
wrights, fishermen,  husbandmen,  gardeners,  brick- 
layers, lime  -  burners,  blacksmiths,  shoemakers, 
coopers,  turners,  gunmakers,  wheelwrights,  ma- 
sons, millers,  bakers,  and  brewers  figure  on  the 
list  with  many  others.  But  there  must  have  been 
difficulty  in  getting  enough  of  such  respectable 
workmen  together  in  due  season  for  Newport's 
return  trip ;  for  when  that  mariner  started  in 
March,  1611,  with  three  ships  and  300  passen- 
gers, it  was  a  more  shiftless  and  graceless  set  of 
ne'er-do-weels  than  had  ever  been  sent  out  before. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     163 

One  lesson,  however,  had  been  learned  ;  and  vict- 
uals enough  were  taken  to  last  the  whole  col- 
ony for  a  year.  Gates,  the  deputy-governor,  was 
not  ready  to  go,  and  his  place  was  supplied  by 
Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  for  the  purpose  Sir  -^^^ 
was  appointed  High  Marshal  of  Vir-  Dale' 
ginia.  Under  that  designation  this  remarkable 
man  ruled  the  colony  for  the  next  five  years, 
though  his  superior,  Gates,  was  there  with  him  for 
a  small  part  of  the  time.  Lord  Delaware,  whose 
tenure  of  office  as  governor  was  for  life,  remained 
during  those  five  years  hi  England.  If  the  Com- 
pany erred  in  sending  out  scapegraces  for  settlers, 
it  did  its  best  to  repair  the  error  in  sending  such 
a  man  as  Dale  to  govern  them.  Hard-headed, 
indomitable,  bristling  with  energy,  full  of  shrewd 
common-sense,  Sir  Thomas  Dale  was  always  equal 
to  the  occasion,  and  under  his  masterful  guidance 
Virginia  came  out  from  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  He  was  a  soldier  who  had  seen  some  of 
the  hardest  fighting  in  the  Netherlands,  and  had 
afterward  been  attached  to  the  suite  of  Henry, 
Prince  of  Wales.  He  was  connected  by  marriage 
.with  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  with  the  Berkeleys. 

Dale  was  a  true  English  mastiff,  faithful  and 
kind  but  formidable  when  aroused,  and  capable  of 
showing  at  times  some  traits  of  the  old  wolf.  The 
modern  excess  of  pity  misdirected,  which  tries  to 
save  the  vilest  murderers  from  the  gallows,  would 
have  been  to  him  incomprehensible.  To  the  up- 
right he  was  a  friend  and  helper  ;  toward  depraved 
offenders  he  was  merciless,  and  among  those  over 
whom  he  was  called  to  rule  there  were  many  such. 


164     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

John  Smith  judiciously  criticised  the  policy  of  the 
Company  in  sending  out  such  people  ;  for,  he  says, 
"when  neither  the  fear  of  God,  nor  shame,  nor 
displeasure  of  their  friends  could  rule  them  [in 
England],  there  is  small  hope  ever  to  bring  one 
in  twenty  of  them  ever  to  be  good  [in  Virginia]. 
Notwithstanding  I  confess  divers  amongst  them 
had  better  minds  and  grew  much  more  industrious 
than  was  expected ;  yet  ten  good  workmen  would 
have  done  more  substantial  work  in  a  day  than 
ten  of  them  in  a  week" 1  It  was  not  against  those 
who  had  better  minds  that  Dale's  heavy  hand  was 
directed ;  it  was  reserved  for  the  incorrigible  and 
crushed  them.  When  he  reached  Jamestown,  in 
May,  1611,  he  found  that  the  two  brief  months  of 
Percy's  mild  rule  had  already  begun  to  bear  ill 
fruit;  men  were  playing  at  bowls  in  working 
hours,  quite  oblivious  of  planting  and  hoeing. 

To  meet  the  occasion,  a  searching  code  of  laws 
had  already  been  sanctioned  by  the  Company.  In 
A  Draconian  *^s  CO(^e  several  capital  crimes  were 
specified.  Among  them  were  failure  to 
attend  the  church  services,  or  blaspheming  God's 
name,  or  speaking  "  against  the  known  articles  of 
the  Christian  faith."  Any  man  who  should  "  un- 
worthily demean  himself  "  toward  a  clergyman,  or 
fail  to  "  hold  him  in  all  reverent  regard,"  was  to 
be  thrice  publicly  whipped,  and  after  each  whip- 
ping was  to  make  public  acknowledgment  of  the 
heinousness  of  his  crime  and  the  justice  of  the 
punishment.  Not  only  to  speak  evil  of  the  king, 
but  even  to  vilify  the  London  Company,  was  a 
*  Smith's  Works,  p.  487. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    165 

treasonable  offence,  to  be  punished  with  death. 
Other  capital  offences  were  unlicensed  trading 
with  the  Indians,  the  malicious  uprooting  of  a 
crop,  or  the  slaughter  of  cattle  or  poultry  without 
the  High  Marshal's  permission.  For  remissness 
in  the  daily  work  various  penalties  were  assigned, 
and  could  be  inflicted  at  the  discretion  of  a  court- 
martial.  One  of  the  first  results  of  this  strict 
discipline  was  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow  and  per- 
haps murder  Dale.  The  principal  leader  was  that 
Jeffrey  Abbot  whom  we  have  seen  accompanying 
Smith  on  his  last  journey  to  Werowocomoco.  The 
plot  was  detected,  and  Abbot  and  five  Cruei  pun- 
other  ringleaders  were  put  to  death  in  ishments- 
what  the  narrator  calls  a  "  cruel  and  unusual " 
manner,  using  the  same  adjectives  which  happen 
to  occur  in  our  Federal  Constitution  in  its  prohi- 
bition of  barbarous  punishments.  It  seems  clear 
that  at  least  one  of  the  offenders  was  broken  on 
the  wheel,  after  the  French  fashion ;  and  on  some 
other  occasion  a  lawbreaker  "  had  a  bodkin  thrust 
through  his  tongue  and  was  chained  to  a  tree  till 
he  perished."  But  these  were  rare  and  extreme 
cases ;  the  ordinary  capital  punishments  were 
simply  hanging  and  shooting,  and  they  were  sum- 
marily employed.  Ralph  Hamor,  however,  one  of 
the  most  intelligent  and  fair-minded  of  contempo- 
rary chroniclers,  declares  that  Dale's  severity  was 
less  than  the  occasion  demanded,  and  that  he  could 
not  have  been  more  lenient  without  imperilling 
the  existence  of  the  colony.1  So  the  "  Apostle  of 
Virginia,"  the  noble  Alexander  Whitaker,  seems 
1  Smith's  Works,  p.  508. 


166     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

to  have  thought,  for  he  held  the  High  Marshal  in 
great  esteem.  "  Sir  Thomas  Dale,"  said  he,  "  is  a 
man  of  great  knowledge  in  divinity,  and  of  a  good 
conscience  in  all  things,  both  which  be  rare  in  a 
martial  man."  In  his  leisure  moments  the  stern 
soldier  liked  nothing  so  well  as  to  sit  and  discuss 
abstruse  points  of  theology  with  this  excellent  cler- 
gyman. 

But  Dale  was  something  more  than  a  strong 
ruler  and  merciless  judge.  With  statesmanlike 
insight  he  struck  at  one  of  the  deepest  roots  of  the 
evils  which  had  afflicted  the  colony.  Nothing  had 
done  so  much  to  discourage  steady  labour  and  to 
communism  foster  idleness  and  mischief  as  the  com- 
in  practice.  munisrn  which  had  prevailed  from  the 
beginning.  This  compulsory  system  of  throwing 
all  the  earnings  into  a  common  stock  had  just 
suited  the  lazy  ones.  Your  true  communist  is  the 
man  who  likes  to  live  on  the  fruits  of  other  peo- 
ple's labour.  If  you  look  for  him  in  these  days 
you  are  pretty  sure  to  find  him  in  a  lager  beer 
saloon,  talking  over  schemes  for  rebuilding  the 
universe.  In  the  early  days  of  Virginia  the  crea- 
ture's nature  was  the  same,  and  about  one  fifth  of 
the  population  was  thus  called  upon  to  support  the 
whole.  Under  such  circumstances  it  is  wonderful 
that  the  colony  survived  until  Dale  could  come 
and  put  an  end  to  the  system.  It  would  not  have 
done  so,  had  not  Smith  and  Delaware  been  able 
more  or  less  to  compel  the  laggards  to  work  under 
penalties.  Dale's  strong  common-sense  taught 
him  that  to  put  men  under  the  influence  of  the 
natural  incentives  to  labour  was  better  than  to 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    167 

drive  them  to  it  by  whipping  them  and  slitting 
their  ears.     Only  thus  could  the  character  of  the 
colonists  be  permanently  improved  and 
the  need  for  harsh  punishments  relaxed,  abolishing 

TV    ••  i     •  •  i  r    conmiuniffTUt 

So  the  worthy  Dale  took  it  upon  himself 
to  reform  the  whole  system.  The  colonist,  from 
being  a  member  of  an  industrial  army,  was  at 
once  transformed  into  a  small  landed  proprietor, 
with  three  acres  to  cultivate  for  his  own  use  and 
behoof,  on  condition  of  paying  a  tax  of  six  bushels 
of  corn  into  the  public  treasury,  which  in  that 
primitive  time  was  the  public  granary.  Though 
the  change  was  but  partially  accomplished  in 
Dale's  time,  the  effect  was  magical.  Industry  and 
thrift  soon  began  to  prevail,  crimes  and  disorders 
diminished,  gallows  and  whipping-post  found  less 
to  do,  and  the  gaunt  wolf  of  famine  never  again 
thrust  his  head  within  the  door. 

Six  months  after  Dale's  administration  had  be- 
gun, a  fresh  supply  of  settlers  raised  the  whole 
number  to  nearly  800,  and  a  good  stock  of  cows, 
oxen,  and  goats  was  added  to  their  resources.   The 
colony  now  began   to  expand   itself  beyond   the' 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  Jamestown.    Already 
there  was  a  small  settlement  at  the  river's  mouth, 
near  the  site  of  Hampton.     The  want  of 
a  better  site  than  Jamestown  was  freely  of  Henri- 
admitted,  and  Dale  selected  the  Dutch 
Gap  peninsula.     He  built  a  palisade  across  the 
neck  and  blockhouses  in  suitable  positions.     The 
population  of  about  300  souls  were  accommodated 
with  houses  arranged  in  three  streets,  and  there 
was  a  church  and  a  storehouse.    This  new  creation 


168     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Dale  called  the  City  of  Henricus,  after  his  patron 
Prince  Henry.  A  city,  in  any  admissible  sense  of 
the  word,  it  never  became,  but  it  left  its  name 
upon  Henrico  County.  Afterward  Dale  founded 
other  communities  at  Bermuda  and  Shirley  Hun- 
dreds, and  left  his  name  upon  the  settlement 
known  as  Dale's  Gift  on  the  eastern  peninsula 
near  Cape  Charles. 

This  expansion  of  the  colony  made  it  more  than 
ever  desirable  to  pacify  the  Indians,  whose  attitude 
had  been  hostile  ever  since  Smith's  departure. 
During  all  this  time  nothing  had  been  seen  of 
Pocahontas,  whose  visits  to  Jamestown  had  been 
so  frequent,  but  that  can  hardly  be  called  strange, 
since  her  tribe  was  on  the  war-path  against  the 
English.  The  chronicler  Strachey  says 
seized  by  that  in  1610,  being  about  fifteen  years 

Argall,  1612.          -       ,  .    J  ,  .    „      .  , 

old,  she  was  married  to  a  chiettain  named 
Kocoum.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  in 
1612  young  Captain  Argall  found  her  staying 
with  the  Potomac  tribe,  whose  chief  he  bribed 
with  a  copper  kettle  to  connive  at  her  abduction. 
She  was  inveigled  on  board  Argall's  ship  and 
taken  to  Jamestown,  to  be  held  as  a  hostage  for 
her  father's  good  behaviour.1  It  is  not  clear  what 

1  Another  interesting  person  sailed  with  Argall  to  James- 
town. A  lad,  Henry  Spelman,  son  of  the  famous  antiquary,  Sir 
Henry  Spelman,  was  at  the  Pamunkey  village  when  Ratcliffe  and 
his  party  were  massacred  by  The  Powhatan  (see  above,  p.  153). 
The  young  man's  life  was  saved  by  Pocahontas,  and  he  was 
probably  adopted.  Argall  found  him  with  Pocahontas  among 
the  Potomacs,  and  bought  him  at  the  cost  of  a  small  further  out- 
lay in  copper.  Spelman  afterward  became  a  person  of  some  im- 
portance in  the  colony.  His  "  Relation  of  Virginia,"  containing 
an  interesting  account  of  the  Ratcliffe  massacre  and  other  mat- 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    169 

» 

might  have  come  of  this,  for  The  Powhatan's  con- 
duct was  so  unsatisfactory  that  Dale  had  about 
made  up  his  mind  to  use  fire  and  sword  against 
him,  when  all  at  once  the  affair  took  an  un- 
expected turn.  Among  the  passengers  on  the  ill- 
fated  Sea  Venture  were  John  Rolfe  and  his  wife, 
of  Heachanv,  in  Norfolk.  During  their  stay  on 
the  Bermuda  Islands,  a  daughter  was  born  to  them 
and  christened  Bermuda.  Shortly  after  their 
arrival  in  Virginia,  Mrs.  Rolfe  died,  and  now  an 
affection  sprang  up  between  the  widower  and  the 
captive  Pocahontas.  Whether  the  Indian  hus- 
band of  the  latter  (if  Strachey  is  to  be  believed) 
was  living  or  dead,  would  make  little  difference 
according  to  Indian  notions ;  for  among  all  the 
Indian  tribes,  when  first  studied  by  white  men, 
marriage  was  a  contract  terminable  at  pleasure  by 
either  party.  Scruples  of  a  different  sort  troubled 
Rolfe,  who  hesitated  about  marrying  a  heathen 
unless  he  could  make  it  the  occasion  of  saving  her 
soul  from  the  Devil.  This  was  easily  achieved  by 
converting  her  to  Christianity  and  bap- 
tizing her  with  the  Bible  name  Rebekah. 
Sir  Thomas  Dale  improved  the  occasion  Roife/A 
to  renew  the  old  alliance  with  The  Pow- 
hatan,  who  may  have  welcomed  such  an  escape 
from  a  doubtful  trial  of  arms ;  and  the  marriage 
was  solemnized  in  April,  1614,  in  the  church  at 
Jamestown,  in  the  presence  of  an  amicable  com- 
pany of  Indians  and  Englishmen.  One  could 

ters,  was  first  published  under  the  learned  editorship  of  Henry 
Stevens  in  1872,  and  has  since  been  reprinted  in  Arbor's  invalu- 
able edition  of  Smith's  Works,  pp.  cL-cxiv. 


170     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

wish  that  more  of  the  details  connected  with  this 
affair  had  been  observed  and  recorded  for  us,  so 
that  modern  studies  of  Indian  law  and  custom 
might  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them.  How  much 
weight  this  alliance  may  have  had  with  the  In- 
dians, one  can  hardly  say ;  but  at  all  events  they 
made  little  or  no  trouble  for  the  next  eight  years. 
Other  foes  than  red  men  called  for  Dale's  atten- 
tion. In  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  the  French  were  as  busily  at  work  as 
the  English  in  Virginia.  The  45th  parallel,  the 
northern  limit  of  oldest  Virginia,  runs  through 
the  country  now  called  Nova  Scotia.  At  Port 
Royal,  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  a  small  French  col- 
ony had  been  struggling  against  dire  adversity 
ever  since  1604,  and  more  lately  a  party  of  French 
Jesuits  had  begun  to  make  a  settlement  on  Mount 
Desert  Island,  off  the  coast  of  Maine.  In  one  of 

his  fishing  excursions  Captain  Argall 
attacks  the  discovered  this  Jesuit  settlement  and 

promptly  extinguished  it,  carrying  his 
prisoners  to  Jamestown.  Then  Dale  sent  him 
back  to  patrol  that  northern  coast,  and  presently 
Argall  swooped  upon  Port  Royal  and  burned  it  to 
the  ground,  carrying  off  the  live-stock  as  booty 
and  the  inhabitants  as  prisoners.  The  French 
ambassador  in  London  protested  and  received 
evasive  answers  until  the  affair  was  allowed  to 
drop  and  Port  Royal  was  rebuilt  without  further 
molestation  by  the  English.  These  events  were 
the  first  premonition  of  a  mighty  conflict,  not  to 
be  fully  entered  upon  till  the  days  of  Argall's 
grandchildren,  and  not  to  be  finally  decided  until 


BEGINNINGS   OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    171 

the  days  of  their  grandchildren,  when  Wolfe 
climbed  the  Heights  of  Abraham.  We  are  told 
that  on  his  way  back  to  Jamestown  the  uncere- 
monious Argall  looked  in  at  the  Hudson  and  warns 
Kiver,  and  finding  Hendrick  Christian-  theDutch- 
sen  there  with  his  colony  of  Dutch  traders,  ordered 
him  under  penalty  of  a  broadside  to  haul  down 
the  flag  of  the  Netherlands  and  run  up  the  Eng- 
lish ensign.  The  philosophic  Dutchman  quietly 
obeyed,  but  as  soon  as  the  ship  was  out  of  sight 
he  replaced  his  own  flag,  consigning  Captain 
Argall  sotto  voce  to  a  much  warmer  place  than 
the  Hudson  River. 

In  1616  George  Yeardley,  who  was  already  in 
Virginia,  succeeded  Sir  Thomas  Gates  as  deputy- 
governor,  and  Dale,  who  had  affairs  in  Europe 
that  needed  attention,  sailed  for  England.  He 
had  much  reason  to  feel  proud  of  what  had  been 
accomplished  during  his  five  years'  rule.  Strict 
order  had  been  maintained  and  the  Indians  had 
been  pacified,  while  the  colony  had  trebled  in 
numbers,  and  symptoms  of  prosperity  were  every- 
where visible.  In  the  ship  which  carried  Dale  to 
England  went  John  Rolfe  and  his  wife  visitor 
Pocahontas.  Much  ado  was  made  over  fo0^^8 
the  Indian  woman,  who  was  presented  at  1616' 
court  by  Lady  Delaware  and  everywhere  treated 
as  a  princess.  There  is  a  trustworthy  tradition 
that  King  James  was  inclined  to  censure  Rolfe  for 
marrying  into  a  royal  family  without  consulting 
his  own  sovereign.  In  the  English  imagination 
The  Powhatan  figured  as  a  sovereign ;  and  when 
European  feudal  ideas  were  applied  to  the  case  it 


172     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

seemed  as  if  in  certain  contingencies  the  infant 
son  of  Rolfe  and  Pocahontas  might  become  "  King 
of  Virginia."  The  dusky  princess  was  entertained 
with  banquets  and  receptions,  she  was  often  seen 
at  the  theatre,  and  was  watched  with  great  curi- 
osity by  the  people.  It  was  then  that  "  La  Belle 
Sauvage "  became  a  favourite  name  for  London 
taverns.  Her  portrait,  engraved  by  the  celebrated 
artist,  Simon  Van  Pass,1  shows  us  a  rather  hand- 
some and  dignified  young  woman,  with  her  neck 
encircled  by  the  broad  serrated  collar  or  ruff  char- 
acteristic of  that  period,  an  embroidered  and  jew- 
elled cap  on  her  head,  and  a  fan  in  her  hand.  The 
inscription  on  the  portrait  gives  her  age  as  one- 
and-twenty,  which  would  make  her  thirteen  at  the 
time  when  she  rescued  Captain  Smith.  While  she 
was  in  England,  she  had  an  interview  with  Smith. 
He  had  made  his  exploring  voyage  on  the  New 
England  coast  two  years  before,  when  he  changed 
the  name  of  the  country  from  North  Virginia  to 
New  England.  In  1615  he  had  started  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Plymouth  Company  with  an  expedition 
for  colonizing  New  England,  but  had  been  cap- 
tured by  French  cruisers  and  carried  to  Rochelle. 
After  his  return  from  France  he  was  making  prep- 
arations for  another  voyage  to  New  Eng- 
viewwith  land,  when  he  heard  of  Pocahontas  and 
called  on  her.  When  he  addressed  her, 
as  all  did  in  England,  as  Lady  Rebekah,  she 
seemed  hurt  and  turned  away,  covering  her  face 
with  her  hands.  She  insisted  upon  calling  him 
Father  and  having  him  call  her  his  child,  as  for- 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  98. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     173 

merly  in  the  wilderness.  Then  she  added,  "  They 
did  always  tell  us  you  were  dead,  and  I  knew  not 
otherwise  till  I  came  to  Plymouth."  l 

Early  in  1617  Argall  was  appointed  deputy-gov- 
ernor of  Virginia  and  sailed  in  March  to  supersede 
Yeardley.  Rolfe  was  made  secretary  of  the  col- 
ony and  went  in  the  same  ship ;  but  Pocahontas 
fell  suddenly  ill,  and  died  before  leav- 
ing: Gravesend.  She  was  buried  in  the  Pocahontas, 

1617. 

parish  church  there.  Her  son,  Thomas 
Rolfe,  was  left  with  an  uncle  in  England,  where 
he  grew  to  manhood.  Then  he  went  to  Virginia, 
to  become  the  ancestor,  not  of  a  line  of  kings,  but 
of  the  families  of  Murray,  Fleming,  Gay,  Whittle, 
Robertson,  Boiling,  and  Eldredge,  as  well  as  of 
the  branch  of  Randolphs  to  which  the  famous  John 
Randolph  of  Roanoke  belonged.2  One  cannot 
leave  the  story  of  Pocahontas  without  recalling  the 
curious  experiences  of  a  feathered  chieftain  in  her 
party  named  Tomocomo,  whom  The  Powhatan  had 
instructed  to  make  a  report  on  the  population  of 
England.  For  this  purpose  he  was  equipped  with 
a  sheaf  of  sticks  on  which  he  was  to  make  a  notch 
for  every  white  person  he  should  meet. 
Plymouth  must  have  kept  poor  Tomo-  census- 

1  V      U    4.  •     •  •        ta*<*. 

como   busy  enough,  but  on  arriving  m 
London  he  uttered  an  amazed  grunt  and  threw  his 
sticks  away.     He  had  also  been  instructed  to  ob- 
serve carefully  the  king  and  queen  and  God,  and 

1  Smith's  Works,  p.  533. 

2  See  Meade's  Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia,  ii.  79 ; 
a  most  useful  and  delightful  book,  in  about  a  thousand  pages 
without  an  index  I 


174     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

report  on  their  personal  appearance.  Tomocomo 
found  it  hard  to  believe  that  so  puny  a  creature  as 
James  Stuart  could  be  the  chief  of  the  white  men, 
and  he  could  not  understand  why  he  was  not  told 
where  God  lived  and  taken  to  see  him. 

When  Argall  arrived  in  Virginia,  he  found  that 
a  new  industry,  at  which  sundry  experiments  had 
been  made  under  Dale,  was  acquiring  large  dimen- 
sions and  fast  becoming  established.  Of  all  the 
gifts  that  America  has  vouchsafed  to  the  Old  World, 
the  most  widely  acceptable  has  been  that  which 
a  Greek  punster  might  have  called  "  the  Bacchic 
gift,"  TO  POLKXIKOV  Scop^a,  tobacco.  No  other  visi- 
ble and  tangible  product  of  Columbus's  discovery 
has  been  so  universally  diffused  among  all  kinds 
and  conditions  of  men,  even  to  the  remot- 
est nooks  and  corners  of  the  habitable 
earth.  Its  serene  and  placid  charm  has  everywhere 
proved  irresistible,  although  from  the  outset  its 
use  has  been  frowned  upon  with  an  acerbity  such 
as  no  other  affair  of  hygiene  has  ever  called  forth. 
The  first  recorded  mention  of  tobacco  is  in  Colum- 
bus's diary  for  November  20,  1492.  The  use  of  it 
was  soon  introduced  into  the  Spanish  peninsula, 
and  about  1560  the  French  ambassador  at  Lisbon, 
Jean  Nicot,  sent  some  of  the  fragrant  herb  into 
France,  where  it  was  named  in  honour  of  him 
Nicotiana.  It  seems  to  have  been  first  brought  to 
England  by  Lane's  returning  colonists  in  1586,  and 
early  in  the  seventeenth  century  it  was  becoming 
fashionable  to  smoke,  in  spite  of  the  bull  of  Pope 
Urban  VIII.  and  King  James's  "  Counterblast 
to  Tobacco."  Every  one  will  remember  how  that 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     175 

royal  author  characterized  smoking  as  "  a  custom 
loathsome  to  the  eye,  hateful  to  the  nose,  harmful 
to  the  brain,  dangerous  to  the  lungs,  and  in  the 
black  stinking  fume  thereof  nearest  resembling 
the  horrible  Stygian  smoke  of  the  pit  that  is  bot- 
tomless." On  Twelfth  Night,  1614,  a  dramatic 
entertainment,  got 'up  by  the  gentlemen  of  Gray's 
Inn  and  called  the  Mask  of  Flowers,  was  Tbe  ^^^ 
performed  before  the  king  and  queen  at  ° 
Whitehall.  In  it  the  old  classic  Silenus  appears, 
jovial  and  corpulent,  holding  his  goatskin  wine- 
bag, and  with  him  a  novel  companion,  an  Ameri- 
can chieftain  named  Kawasha,  dressed  in  an  em- 
broidered mantle  cut  like  tobacco  leaves,  with  a 
red  cap  trimmed  with  gold  on  his  head,  rings  in 
his  ears,  a  chain  of  glass  beads  around  his  neck, 
and  a  bow  and  arrows  in  his  hand.  These  two 
strange  worthies  discuss  the  merits  of  wine  and 
tobacco :  — 

Silenus.       Kawasha  comes  in  majesty ; 
Was  never  such  a  god  as  he. 
He  's  come  from  a  far  country 
To  make  our  nose  a  chimney. 

Kawasha.    The  wine  takes  the  contrary  -way 
To  get  into  the  hood ; 
But  good  tobacco  makes  no  stay, 
But  seizeth  where  it  should. 
More  incense  hath  burned  at 
Great  Kawasha's  foot 
Than  to  Silen  and  Bacchus  both, 
And  take  in  Jove  to  boot. 

Silenus.       The  worthies  they  were  nine,  't  is  true, 
And  lately  Arthur's  knights  I  knew, 
But  now  are  come  up  worthies  new, 
The  roaring  boys,  Kawasha's  crew. 


176     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Kawasha.    Silenus  tops  l  the  barrel,  but 
Tobacco  tops  the  brain 
And  makes  the  vapours  fine  and  soote,2 
That  man  revives  again. 
Nothing  but  fumigation 
Doth  charm  away  ill  sprites. 
Kawasha  and  his  nation 
Found  out  these  holy  rites.  8 

In  Virginia  the  first  settlers  found  the  Indians 
cultivating  tobacco  in  small  gardens.  The  first 
Englishman  to  make  experiments  with  it  is  said 
to  have  been  John  Rolfe  in  1612.  Under  Yeard- 
ley's  first  administration,  in  1616,  the  cultivation 
of  tobacco  became  fairly  established,  and  from  that 
time  forth  it  was  a  recognized  staple  of  the  colony. 
The  effects  of  this  were  very  notable.  As  the 
great  purchasing;  power  of  a  tobacco  crop 

Effects  of         &  n 

tobacco  cui-  came  to  be  generally  known,  the  people 
of  Virginia  devoted  themselves  more  and 
more  to  its  cultivation,  until  nearly  all  other  crops 
and  most  other  forms  of  industry  were  neglected. 
Thus  the  type  of  society,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
was  largely  determined  by  the  cultivation  of  to- 
bacco. Moreover  a  clear  and  positive  inducement 
was  now  offered  for  emigration  such  as  had  not 
existed  before  since  the  first  dreams  of  gold  and 
silver  were  dispelled.  After  the  first  disappoint- 

1  There  is  a  play  upon  words  here.     The  first  "  top  "  is  appar- 
ently equivalent  to  "drink  up,"  as  in  the  following:    "Its  no 
hainous  offence    (beleeve  me)  for  a  young  man  ...  to  toppe  of 
a  canne  roundly,"  Terence  in  English,  1614.     The  second  "top" 
seems  equivalent  to  "  put  the  finishing  touch  on."  —  "  Silenus 
quaffs  the  barrel,  but  Tobacco  perfects  the  brain." 

2  Sweet. 

8  Nichols,  Progresses  of  King  James,  ii.  739. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A    COMMONWEALTH.     177 

ments  it  became  difficult  to  persuade  men  of  hard 
sense  to  go  to  Virginia,  and  we  have  seen  what  a 
wretched  set  of  people  were  drawn  together  by  the 
Company's  communistic  schemes.  But  those  who 
came  to  acquire  wealth  by  raising  tobacco  were  of 
a  better  sort,  men  of  business-like  ideas  who  knew 
what  they  wanted  and  how  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  task  of  getting  it.  With  the  establishment 
of  tobacco  culture  there  began  a  steady  improve- 
ment in  the  characters  and  fortunes  of  the  colo- 
nists, and  the  demand  for  their  staple  in  Europe 
soon  became  so  great  as  forever  to  end  the  possi- 
bility of  perishing  from  want.  Henceforth  what- 
ever a  Virginian  needed  he  could  buy  with  tobacco. 
We  have  now  to  see  how  Virginia,  which  was 
fast  becoming  able  to  support  itself,  became  also 
a  self-governing  community.  The  administrations 
of  Lord  Delaware,  of  Dale,  of  Yeardley,  and  of 
Argall,  were  all  despotisms,  whether  mild  or 
harsh.  To  trace  the  evolution  of  free  govern- 
ment, we  must  take  our  start  in  the  year  1612, 
when  the  London  Company  obtained  its  The  IjaaAoa 
third  charter.  The  immediate  occasion  t°aXh£- 
for  taking  out  this  charter  was  the  de-  ter>1612- 
sire  of  the  Company  to  include  among  its  posses- 
sions the  Bermuda  Islands,  and  they  were  now 
added  to  Virginia.  At  the  same  time  it  was  felt 
that  the  government  of  the  Company  needed  some 
further  emendation  in  order  to  give  the  members 
more  direct  and  continuous  control  over  its  pro- 
ceedings. It  was  thus  provided  that  there  should 
be  weekly  meetings,  at  which  not  less  than  five 
members  of  the  council  and  fifteen  of  the  Company 


178     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

must  be  present.  Besides  this  there  were  to  be 
held  four  general  courts  or  quarter  sessions  in  the 
course  of  each  year,  for  electing  the  treasurer  and 
council  and  passing  laws  for  the  government  of  the 
colony.  At  these  quarter  sessions  charges  could  be 
brought  against  delinquent  servants  of  the  Com- 
pany, which  was  clothed  with  full  judicial  powers 
of  hearing  and  deciding  such  cases  and  inflicting 
punishments.  A  good  many  subscribers  had  been 
alarmed  by  evil  tidings  from  Virginia  so  that  they 
would  refuse  or  more  often  would  simply  neglect 
to  pay  in  the  amount  of  their  subscriptions.  To 
remedy  these  evils  the  Company  was  empowered 
to  expel  delinquent  members  or  to  bring  suits  in 
law  and  equity  against  them  to  recover  damages  -or 
compel  performance.  Furthermore,  it  was  allowed 
to  replenish  its  treasury  by  setting  up  lotteries,  a 
practice  in  which  few  people  at  that  time  saw  any- 
thing objectionable.  Such  a  lottery  was  held  at  a 
house  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  in  July,  1612,  of 
which  the  continuator  of  Stow's  Chronicle  tells 
us  :  "  This  lottery  was  so  plainly  carried 

Lotteries.  *  i     i          • 

and  honestly  performed  that  it  gave  full 
satisfaction  to  all  persons.  Thomas  Sharplisse,  a 
tailor  of  London,  had  the  chief  prize,  viz.,  4,000 
crowns  in  fair  plate,  which  was  sent  to  his  house 
in  very  stately  manner.  During  the  whole  time 
of  the  drawing  of  this  lottery,  there  were  always 
present  divers  worshipful  knights  and  esquires, 
accompanied  with  sundry  grave  discreet  citizens." 
In  September  the  Spanish  ambassador,  Zuniga, 
wrote  home  that  "  there  was  a  lottery  on  foot  to 
raise  20,000  ducats  [equivalent  to  about  $40,000]. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     179 

In  this  all  the  livery  companies  adventured.  The 
grocers  ventured  =£62  15s.,  and  won  a  silver  [dish] 
and  cover  valued  at  £13  10s."  1 

This  remodelling  of  the  Company's  charter  was 
an  event  of  political  importance.  Formerly  the 
meetings  of  the  Company  had  been  few  and  far 
between,  and  its  affairs  had  been  practically  con- 
trolled by  the  council,  and  in  many  cases  by  its 
chief  executive  officer,  the  treasurer,  Sir  Thomas 
Smith.  Now  the  weekly  meetings  of  the  Com- 
pany, and  its  courts  of  quarter  sessions,  armed 
with  such  legislative  and  judicial  powers,  put  a 
new  face  upon  things.  It  made  the  Company  a 
democratic  self-governing  body,  and  when  we  re- 
call the  membership  of  the  Company  we  ^^  Com. 
can  see  what  this  meant.  There  were  cJSLlln 
fifty-six  of  the  craft-guilds  or  liveried  ftS0" 
companies  of  the  city  of  London,  whose  P°utlcs- 
lord  mayor  was  also  a  prominent  member,  and 
the  political  spirit  of  London  was  aggressively 
liberal  and  opposed  to  high  prerogative.  There 
were  also  more  than  a  hundred  London  merchants 
and  more  than  two  hundred  persons  belonging  to 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  including  some  of  the 
foremost  peers  and  knights  in  the  party  hostile  to 
the  Stuart  king's  pretensions.  The  meetings  of 
the  Company  were  full  of  discussions  which  could 
not  help  taking  a  political  turn,  since  some  of 
the  most  burning  political  questions  of  the  day  — 
as,  for  example,  the  great  dispute  over  monopolies 
and  other  disputes  —  were  commercial  in  charac- 
ter. Men's  eyes  were  soon  opened  to  the  ex- 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  66. 


180     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

istence  of  a  great  deliberative  body  outside  of 
Parliament  and  expressing  itself  with  much  free- 
dom on  exciting  topics.  The  social  position  and 
weighty  character  of  the  members  drew  general 
attention  to  their  proceedings,  especially  as  many 
of  them  were  also  members  of  either  the  House 
of  Lords  or  the  House  of  Commons.  We  can 
easily  believe  the  statement  that  the  discussions 
of  the  Company  were  followed  with  even  deeper 
interest  than  the  debates  in  Parliament.  It  took 
a  few  years  for  this  aspect  of  the  situation  to  be- 
come fully  developed,  but  opposition  to  the  new 
charter  was  soon  manifested,  even  by 

Opposition  ~ 

to  the  char-    sundry  members  of  the  Company  itself. 

ter:  Mid-  J  i          •   i        o 

dieton's         oome    of    them    agreed    with    oergeant 

speech 

Montague  that  to  confer  such  vast  and 
vague  powers  upon  a  mercantile  corporation  was 
unconstitutional.  In  a  debate  in  Parliament  in 
1614  a  member  of  the  Company  named  Middleton 
attacked  the  charter  on  the  ground  that  trade  with 
Virginia  and  agriculture  there  needed  more  strict 
regulation  than  it  was  getting.  "  The  shopkeep- 
ers of  London,"  he  said,  "  sent  over  all  kinds  of 
goods,  for  which  they  received  tobacco  instead  of 
coin,  infinitely  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Common- 
wealth. Many  of  the  divines  now  smell  of  to- 
bacco, and  poor  men  spend  4d.  of  their  day's  wages 
at  night  in  smoke.  [He]  wished  that  this  patent 
may  be  damned,  and  an  act  of  Parliament  passed 
for  the  government  of  the  colony  by  a  company." 1 
So  much  effect  was  produced  by  speeches  of  this 
sort  that  the  council  of  the  Company  as  a  counter- 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  67. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     181 

stroke  presented  a  petition  for  aid,  and  had  it 
defended  before  the  House  of  Commons  by  the 
eminent  lawyer,  Richard  Martin,  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  speakers  of  the  day.  Martin  gave  a  fine 
historical  description  of  English  colonizing  enter- 
prise since  Raleigh's  first  attempts,  then  he  dwelt 
upon  the  immediate  and  pressing  needs  of  Vir- 
ginia, especially  the  need  for  securing  an  ample 
reinforcement  of  honest  workmen  with  their  wives 
and  children,  and  he  urged  the  propriety  of  a  lib- 
eral parliamentary  grant  in  aid  of  the 

n  j   •*  *•  on.          4.  Mr- Martin 

Company  and  its  operations.     Ihen  at  forgets 

the  close  of  an  able  and  effective  speech 
his  eloquence  carried  him  away,  and  he  so  far  for- 
got himself  as  to  remind  the  House  that  it  had 
been  but  a  thriftless  penury  which  had  led  King 
Henry  VII.  to  turn  the  cold  shoulder  upon  Co- 
lumbus, and  to  predict  for  them  similar  chagrin  if 
they  should  neglect  the  interests  of  Virginia.  This 
affair,  as  he  truly  said,  was  of  far  greater  impor- 
tance than  many  of  the  trifles  on  which  the  House 
was  in  the  habit  of  wasting  its  time.  Poor  Martin 
should  have  stopped  a  minute  sooner.  His  last 
remark  was  heard  with  indignation.  One  member 
asked  if  he  supposed  the  House  was  a  school  and 
he  the  schoolmaster ;  another  moved  that  he  should 
be  committed  for  contempt ;  finally  it  was  decided 
that  he  should  make  a  public  apology.  So  the 
next  day,  after  a  mild  and  courteous  rebuke  from 
the  Speaker,  Mr.  Martin  apologized  as  an<Jha8to 
follows,  according  to  the  brief  memoran-  aP°1°Klze- 
dum  entered  upon  the  journal  of  the  House  of 
Commons  for  that  day :  "  All  men  liable  to  err, 


182     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

and  he  particularly  so,  but  he  was  not  in  love  with 
error,  and  as  willing  as  any  man  to  be  divorced 
therefrom.  Admits  that  he  digressed  from  the 
subject ;  that  he  was  like  a  ship  that  cutteth  the 
cable  and  putteth  to  sea,  for  he  cut  his  memory 
and  trusted  to  his  invention.  Was  glad  to  be  an 
example  to  others,  and  submitted  to  the  censure 
not  with  a  dejected  countenance,  for  there  is  com- 
fort in  acknowledging  an  error."  l 

While   such    incidents,    trifling   in   themselves, 
tended  to  create  prejudice  against  the  Company 

on  the  part  of  many  members  of  Par- 
w'ithmthe  liament,  factions  were  soon  developed 

within  the  Company  itself.  There  was, 
first,  the  division  between  the  court  party,  or  sup- 
porters of  the  king,  and  the  country  party,  opposed 
to  his  overweening  pretensions.  The  difference 
between  court  and  country  parties  was  analogous 
to  the  difference  between  Tories  and  Whigs  that 
began  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  A  second  di- 
vision, crossing  the  first  one,  was  that  between 
the  defenders  and  opponents  of  the  monopolies. 
A  third  division  grew  out  of  a  personal  quarrel 
between  the  treasurer,  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  and 
a  prominent  shareholder,  Lord  Rich,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Warwick.  This  man's  title  remains  to- 
day in  the  name  of  Warwick  County  near  the 
mouth  of  James  River.  At  first  he  and  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  were  on  very  friendly  terms.  Sam- 
uel Argall  was  closely  connected  by  marriage  with 
Smith's  family,  and  it  was  Lord  Rich  and  his 
friends  who  in  1617  secured  Argall's  appointment 

1  NeilTs  Virginia  Company,  p.  71. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    183 

as  deputy-governor  of  Virginia.  The  appointment 
turned  out  to  be  far  from  creditable.  Argall's 
rule  was  as  stern  as  Dale's,  but  it  was  not  pub- 
lic-spirited. From  the  upright  and  spotless  Dale 
severity  could  be  endured  ;  with  the  self-seeking 
and  unscrupulous  Argall  it  was  quite  otherwise. 
He  was  so  loudly  accused  of  peculation  and  ex- 
tortion that  after  one  year  the  Company  sent  out 
Lord  Delaware  to  take  personal  charge  of  the 
colony  once  more.  That  nobleman  sailed  in  the 
spring  of  1618,  with  200  emigrants.  They  went 
by  way  of  the  Azores,  and  while  touching  at  the 
island  of  St.  Michael,  Lord  Delaware 
and  thirty  of  his  companions  suddenly  LoniDeia- 

£  11       •    1  J    J'    J    '  U  4.       ware,  1618. 

tell  sick  and  died  in  such  manner  as  to 
raise  a  strong  suspicion  that  their  Spanish  hosts 
had  poisoned  them.  Among  the  governor's  pri- 
vate papers  was  one  that  instructed  him  to  arrest 
Argall  and  send  him  to  England  for  trial.  When 
the  ship  arrived  in  Virginia  this  document  fell 
into  Argall's  hands.  Its  first  effect  was  to  make 
him  behave  worse  than  ever,  until  renewed  com- 
plaints of  him  reached  England  at  the  moment  of  a 
great  change  in  the  governorship  of  the  Company. 
The  chief  executive  officer  of  the  Company  was 
the  treasurer.  Since  1609  Sir  Thomas  Smith 
had  held  that  office,  and  it  had  naturally  enough 
become  fashionable  to  charge  all  the  ills 

,.     ,  |  i  ,  .  .  Quarrel  be- 

ot   the    colony   to   his    mismanagement.  tweenLord 

rp,  ,  ,  -     .          Rich  and  Sir 

Inere  may  have  been  some  ground  tor  Thomas 
this.     Sir   Thomas  was   a   merchant  of 
great  public  spirit  and  talent  for  business,  but  he 
was  apt  to  keep  too  many  irons  in  the  fire,  and 


184     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  East  India  Company,  of  which  he  was  gov- 
ernor, absorbed  his  attention  much  more  than  the 
affairs  of  Virginia.  The  country  party,  led  by 
such  men  as  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  and  Nicholas  Ferrar,  were  opposed  to 
Smith  and  twitted  him  with  the  misconduct  of 
Argall.  At  this  moment  broke  out  the  quarrel 
between  Smith  and  Lord  Kich.  One  of  the  mer- 
chant's sons  aged  only  eighteen  fell  madly  in  love 
with  the  nobleman's  young  sister,  Lady  Isabella 
Rich,  and  his  passion  was  reciprocated.  There 
was  fierce  opposition  to  their  marriage  on  the  part 
of  the  old  merchant ;  and  this  led  to  an  elopement 
and  a  private  wedding,  at  which  the  Earls  of 
Southampton  and  Pembroke  and  the  Countess  of 
Bedford  assisted.1  These  leaders  of  the  country 
party  thus  mortally  offended  Sir  Thomas  Smith, 
while  between  him  and  the  young  lady's  brother, 
Lord  Rich,  there  was  a  furious  explosion.  Lord 
Rich,  who  in  the  midst  of  these  scenes  became 
Earl  of  Warwick,  by  which  title  posterity  remem- 
bers him,  was  a  prominent  leader  of  the  court 
party,  but  this  family  quarrel  led  him  to  a  tempo- 
rary alliance  with  the  opposition,  with 
sir  Edwin  the  result  that  in  the  annual  election  for 
the  treasurership  of  the  Company,  in 
April,  1619,  Sir  Thomas  Smith  was  defeated,  and 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys  chosen  in  his  place.  This  vic- 
tory of  the  king's  opponents  called  forth  much 
excitement  in  England ;  for  the  remaining  five 
years  of  its  existence  the  Company  was  controlled 
by  Sandys  and  his  friends,  and  its  affairs  were 
1  Brown's  Genesis,  ii.  1014 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     185 

"  administered  with  a  degree  of  energy,  unselfish- 
ness, and  statesmanlike  wisdom,  perhaps  unparal- 
leled in  the  history  of  corporations."  * 

This  victory  in  the  spring  election  consummated 
the  ascendency  of  Sandys  and  his  party,  but  that 
ascendency  had  been  already  shown  in 
the  appointment  of  George  Yeardley  to  Yeardley  ap- 
succeed  Lord  Delaware  as  governor  of  emor  of 
Virginia.  The  king  can  hardly  have  rel- 
ished this  appointment,  but  as  Yeardley  was  of 
rather  humble  birth,  being  the  son  of  a  poor  mer- 
chant tailor,  he  gave  him  a  certain  sanction  by 
making  him  a  knight.  High  official  position 
seemed  in  those  days  more  than  now  to  need  some 
such  social  decoration.  Yeardley  was  ordered  to 
send  Argall  home ;  but  that  independent  person- 
age being  privately  notified,  it  is  said  by  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  loaded  his  ship  and  sailed  for  Eng- 
land before  the  governor's  arrival.  He  was  evi- 
dently a  man  who  could  carry  things  with  a  bold 
face.  His  defence  of  himself  satisfied  the  court 
party  but  not  the  country  party;  the  evidence 
against  him  seems  to  have  reached  the  point  of 
moral  conviction,  but  not  of  legal  certainty;  he 
was  put  in  command  of  a  warship  for  the  Medi- 
terranean service,  and  presently  the  king,  perhaps 
to  relieve  his  own  qualms  for  knighting  Yeardley, 
slapped  him  on  the  back  and  made  him  Sir  Sam- 
uel Argall. 

On  many  occasions  the  development  of  popu- 
lar liberty  in  England  has   gone   hand   in   hand 
with  its  development  in  America.     The  growing 
1  Doyle's  Virginia,  p.  157. 


186     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

strength  of  the  popular  antagonism  to  Stuart 
methods  of  government  was  first  conspicuously 
marked  by  the  ascendency  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys 
and  his  party  in  Parliament  and  in  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs  in  Virginia.  Its  first  fruit  was 
The  first  *^e  introduction  of  parliamentary  institu- 
te^ishlture,  ti°ns  into  America.  Despotic  govern- 
ment in  Virginia  had  been  thoroughly 
discredited  by  the  conduct  of  Argall.  More  than 
1,000  persons  were  now  living  in  the  colony,  and 
the  year  1619  saw  the  number  doubled.1  The 
people  called  for  self-government,  and  Sandys  be- 
lieved that  only  through  self-government  could  a 
colony  really  prosper.  Governor  Yeardley  was 
accordingly  instructed  to  issue  writs  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  General  Assembly  in  Virginia,  and  on 
the  30th  of  July,  1619,  the  first  legislative  body  of 
Englishmen  in  America  was  called  together  in  the 
wooden  church  at  Jamestown.  Eleven  local  con- 
stituencies were  represented  under  the  various  des- 
ignations of  city,  plantation,  and  hundred ;  and 
each  constituency  sent  two  representatives,  called 
burgesses,  so  that  the  assembly  was  called  from 
1619  until  1776  the  House  of  Burgesses.  The 
eleven  boroughs  were  James  City,  Charles  City,  the 
City  of  Henricus,  Martin  Brandon,  Martin's  Hun- 
dred, Lawne's  Plantation,  Ward's  Plantation,  Ar- 
gall's  Gift,  Flowerdieu  Hundred,  Smith's  Hundred, 
and  Kecoughtan.  The  last  two  names  were  soon 
changed.  Smith's  Hundred,  at  first  named  after 
the  treasurer,  took  for  its  sponsor  one  of  the 
opposite  party  and  became  Southampton  Hun- 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  pp.  179,  181. 


BEGINNINGS   OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.     187 

dred.  The  name  of  this  friend  of  Shakespeare, 
somewhat  curtailed,  was  also  given  to  Kecoughtan, 
which  became  Hampton,  and  so  remains  to  this 
day.  These  eleven  names  indicate  the  extent  of 
the  colony  up  the  Jam^s  River  about  to  seventy 
miles  from  its  mouth  as  the  crow  flies,  and  later- 
ally five  or  six  miles  inland  from  either  bank,  with 
a  population  rather  less  sparse  than  that  of  Idaho 
at  the  present  day.  Such  was  the  first  American 
self-governing  state  at  its  beginning,  —  a  small 
beginning,  but  what  a  change  from  the  summer 
day  that  witnessed  Lord  Delaware's  arrival  nine 
years  before  ! 

Concerning  this  House  of  Burgesses  I  shall  have 
something  to  say  hereafter.  Let  it  suffice  for  the 
present  to  observe  that  along  with  the  governor 
and  deputy-governor  there  was  an  appointed  upper 
house  called  the  council ;  and  that  the  governor, 
with  the  assistant  council,  and  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, altogether  constituted  a  General 

,  .  .      .,  Nature  of 

Assembly  essentially  similar  to  the  (jren-  the  General 

_  ..-.  ,       Assembly. 

eral  Court  of  Massachusetts,  to  their 
common  prototype,  the  old  English  county  court, 
and  to  their  numerous  posterity,  the  bicameral  leg- 
islatures of  nearly  all  the  world  in  modern  times. 
The  functions  of  this  General  Assembly  were  both 
legislative  and  to  some  extent  judicial.  It  was 
endowed  with  full  powers  of  legislation  for  the 
colony.  Its  acts  did  not  acquire  validity  until  ap- 
proved by  the  General  Court  of  the  London  Com- 
pany, but  on  the  other  hand  no  enactment  which 
the  Company  might  make  for  the  colony  was  to 
be  valid  until  approved  by  its  General  Assem- 


188     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

bly.     These  provisions  were  confirmed  by  a  char* 
ter  issued  in  1621. 

This  gift  of  free  government  to  England's  first 
colony  was  the  work  of  the  London  Company  — 
or,  as  it  was  now  in  London  much  more  often 
called,  the  Virginia  Company  —  under  the  noble 
management  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  his  friends. 
That  great  corporation  was  soon  to  perish,  but  its 
boon  to  Virginia  and  to  American  liberty  was  to 
be  abiding.  The  story  of  the  Company's  down- 
fall, in  its  broad  outlines,  can  be  briefly  told,  but 
first  I  may  mention  a  few  incidents  that  occurred 
before  the  crisis.  One  was  the  first  introduction 
of  neffro  slaves  into  Virginia,  which,  by 

The  first  ne-  f  '    . J 

gro  slaves,      a  rather  curious  freak  of  dates,  came  in 

1G19. 

1619,  just  after  the  sitting  of  the  first 
free  legislature,  and  thus  furnished  posterity  with 
a  theme  for  moralizing.  "  About  the  last  of  Au- 
gust," says  Secretary  Rolfe,  "  [there]  came  in  a 
Dutch  man  of  warre  that  sold  us  twenty  negars." 
A  census  taken  five  years  later,  however,  shows 
only  twenty-two  negroes  in  the  colony.  The  in- 
crease in  their  numbers  was  for  some  time  very 
slow,  and  the  establishment  of  slave  labour  will 
best  be  treated  in  a  future  chapter. 

The  same  year,  1619,  which  witnessed  the  intro- 
duction of  slaves  and  a  House  of  Burgesses,  saw 
also  the  arrival  of  a  shipload  of  young  women  — 
spinsters  carefully  selected  and  matron- 

A  cargo  of.,  i          i       /~i  • 

maidens,        ized  —  sent  out  by  the  Company  in  quest 

of   husbands.     In  Virginia,   as  in  most 

new  colonies,  women  were  greatly  in  the  minority, 

and  the  wise  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  understood  that 


BEGINNINGS  OF  A   COMMONWEALTH.    189 

without  homes  and  family  ties  a  civilized  commu- 
nity must  quickly  retrograde  into  barbarism.  On 
arriving  in  Virginia  these  girls  found  plenty  of 
suitors  and  were  entirely  free  to  exercise  their  own 
choice.  No  accepted  suitor,  however,  could  claim 
his  bride  until  he  should  pay  the  Company  120 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  defray  the  expense  of  her  voy- 
age. This  practice  of  sending  wives  continued  for 
some  time,  and  as  homes  with  pleasant  society  grew 
up  in  Virginia,  life  began  to  be  made  attractive 
there  and  the  immigration  rapidly  increased.  By 
1622  the  population  of  Virginia  was  at  least  4,000, 
the  tobacco  fields  were  flourishing  and  lucrative, 
durable  houses  had  been  built  and  made  comfort- 
able with  furniture  brought  from  England,  and 
the  old  squalor  was  everywhere  giving  way  to 
thrift.  The  area  of  colonization  was  pushed  up 
the  James  Kiver  as  far  as  the  site  of  Richmond. 

This  long  narrow  colony  was  dangerously  ex- 
posed to  attack  from  the  Indian  tribes  along  the 
York  and  Pamunkey  rivers  and  their  confederates 
to  the  west  and  north.  But  an  Indian  attack  was 
something  that  people  had  ceased  to  expect.  For 
eight  years  the  Indians  had  been  to  all  appear- 
ance friendly,  and  it  was  not  uncommon 

.  1-1      Th"  P"eat 

to  see  them  moving  freely  about  the  vil-  Indian  mas- 

J  sacre,  1622. 

lages  and  plantations.  There  had  been 
a  change  of  leadership  among  them.  Wahun- 
sunakok,  the  old  Powhatan  whom  Smith  called 
"father,"  was  dead  ;  his  brother  Opekankano  was 
now  The  Powhatan.  It  is  a  traditional  belief  that 
Opekankano  had  always  favoured  hostile  measures 
toward  the  white  men,  and  that  for  some  years  he 


190     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

awaited  an  opportunity  for  attacking  them.  How 
much  truth  there  may  be  in  this  view  of  the  case 
it  would  be  hard  to  say ;  there  is  very  little  evi- 
dence to  guide  us,  but  we  may  well  believe  that 
Opekankano  and  his  people  watched  with  grave 
concern  the  sudden  and  rapid  increase  of  the  white 
strangers.  That  they  were  ready  to  seize  upon  an 
occasion  for  war  is  by  no  means  unlikely,  and  the 
nature  of  the  event  indicates  careful  preparation. 
Early  in  1622  an  Indian  chief  whom  the  English 
called  Jack  of  the  Feather  killed  a  white  man 
and  was  killed  in  requital.  Shortly  afterward  a 
concerted  attack  was  made  upon  the  colony  along 
the  entire  line  from  Chesapeake  Bay  up  to  the 
Berkeley  Plantation,  near  the  site  of  Richmond, 
and  347  persons  were  butchered.  Such  a  destruc- 
tion of  nearly  nine  per  cent,  of  the  white  population 
was  a  terrible  blow,  but  the  quickness  with  which 
the  colony  recovered  from  it  shows  what  vigorous 
vitality  it  had  been  gaining  under  the  administra- 
tion of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys.  So  lately  as  1618  such 
a  blow  would  have  been  almost  prostrating,  but 
in  1622  the  settlers  turned  out  with  grim  fury 
and  hunted  the  red  men  like  wild  beasts  till  the 
blood  debt  was  repaid  with  compound  interest, 
and  peace  was  restored  in  the  land  for  more  than 
twenty  years. 

While  these  fiendish  scenes  were  being  enacted 
in  Virginia  a  memorable  drama  was  moving  to- 
ward its  final  catastrophe  in  London.  In  the  next 
chapter  we  shall  witness  the  overthrow  of  the  great 
Virginia  Company. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   SEMINARY   OF   SEDITION. 

FEW  episodes  in  English  history  are  more  cu- 
rious than  the  founding  of  Virginia.  In  the  course 
of  the  mightiest  conflict  the  world  had  Suminary 
witnessed  between  the  powers  of  des-  {^f^iing 
potism  and  the  powers  of  freedom,  °£Vir8inia- 
considerations  chiefly  strategical  led  England  to 
make  the  ocean  her  battle-ground,  and  out  of 
these  circumstances  grew  the  idea  of  establishing 
military  posts  at  sundry  important  strategic  points 
on  the  North  American  coast,  to  aid  the  opera- 
tions of  the  navy.  In  a  few  far-sighted  minds 
this  idea  developed  into  the  scheme  of  planting 
one  or  more  Protestant  states,  for  the  increase  of 
England's  commerce,  the  expansion  of  her  politi- 
cal influence,  and  the  maintenance  of  her  naval  ad- 
vantages. After  royal  assistance  had  been  sought 
in  vain  and  single-handed  private  enterprise  had 
proved  unequal  to  the  task  of  founding  a  state, 
the  joint-stock  principle,  herald  of  a  new  indus- 
trial era,  was  resorted  to,  and  we  witness  the 
creation  of  two  rival  joint-stock  companies  for  the 
purpose  of  undertaking  such  a  task.  Of  the  two 
colonies  sent  out  by  these  companies,  one 
meets  the  usual  fate,  succumbs  to  famine, 
and  retires  from  the  scene.  The  other  barely 


192   OLD   VIRGINIA   AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

escapes  a  similar  fate,  but  is  kept  alive  by  the 
energy  and  sagacity  and  good  fortune  of  one  ex- 
traordinary man  until  sturdy  London  has  invested 
so  much  of  her  treasure  and  her  life-blood  in  it 
that  she  will  not  tamely  look  on  and  see  it  perish. 
Then  the  Lord  Mayor,  the  wealthy  merchants,  the 
venerable  craft-guilds,  with  many  liberal  knights 
and  peers,  and  a  few  brilliant  scholars  and  clergy- 
men, turn  to  and  remodel  the  London  Company 
into  a  truly  great  commercial  corporation  with  an 
effective  government  and  one  of  London's  fore- 
most merchant  princes  at  its  head.  As  if  by 
special  intervention  from  heaven,  the  struggling 
colony  is  rescued  at  the  very  point  of  death,  and 
soon  takes  on  a  new  and  more  vigorous  life. 

But  for   such  lavish  outlay  to  continue,  there 

must  be  some  solid  return,  and  soon  a  new  and 

unexpected    source  of   wealth  is  found. 

1610-1624.          A         ii    ,1  •  £  ^     •  1 

As  all  this  sort  ot  work  is  a  novel  experi- 
ment, mistakes  are  at  first  made  in  plenty ;  neither 
the  ends  to  be  obtained  nor  the  methods  of  obtain- 
ing them  are  distinctly  conceived,  and  from  the 
parties  of  brave  gentlemen  in  quest  of  El  Dorado 
to  the  crowd  of  rogues  and  pickpockets  amenable 
only  to  rough  martial  law,  the  drift  of  events 
seems  somewhat  indefinite  and  aimless.  But  just 
as  the  short-lived  system  of  communism  falls  to 
the  ground,  and  private  ownership  of  land  and 
earnings  is  established,  the  rapidly  growing  de- 
mand for  tobacco  in  England  makes  its  cultiva- 
tion an  abundant  and  steady  source  of  wealth,  the 
colonists  increase  in  numbers  and  are  improved  in 
quality.  Meanwhile  as  the  interest  felt  by  the 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  193 

shareholders  becomes  more  lively,  the  Company  ac- 
quires a  more  democratic  organization.  It  exerts 
political  influence,  the  court  party  and  country 
party  contend  with  each  other  for  the  control  of 
it,  and  the  latter  wins.  Hitherto  the  little  Vir- 
ginia colony  has  been,  like  the  contemporary 
French  colony  in  Canada  and  like  all  the  Span- 
ish colonies,  a  despotically  governed  community 
closely  dependent  upon  the  source  of  authority  in 
the  mother  country,  and  without  any  true  political 
life.  But  now  the  victorious  party  in  the  Com- 
pany gives  to  Virginia  a  free  representative  gov- 
ernment, based  not  upon  any  ideal  theory  of  the 
situation,  but  rooted  in  ancient  English  precedent, 
the  result  of  ages  of  practical  experience,  and 
therefore  likely  to  thrive.  Finally  we  see  the 
British  king  awakening  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
unloosed  a  power  that  threatens  danger.  The 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  —  that 
ominous  bequest  from  the  half-orientalized  later 
Roman  Empire  to  post-media3val  Europe  —  was 
dear  to  the  heart  of  James  Stuart,  and  his  aim  in 
life  was  to  impose  it  upon  the  English  people. 
His  chief  obstacle  was  the  country  party,  which  if 
he  could  not  defeat  in  Parliament,  he  might  at 
least  weaken  by  striking  at  the  great  corporation 
that  had  come  to  be  one  of  its  strongholds.  In 
what  we  may  call  the  embryonic  development  of 
Virginia  the  final  incident  was  the  overthrow  of 
the  London  Company ;  but  we  shall  see  that  the 
severing  of  that  umbilical  cord  left  the  colony 
stronger  and  more  self-reliant  than  before.  In 
the  unfolding  of  these  events  there  is  poetic 


194     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

beauty  and  grandeur  as  the  purpose  of  Infinite 
Wisdom  reveals  itself  in  its  cosmic  process,  slowly 
but  inexorably,  hasting  not  but  resting  not,  heed- 
less of  the  clashing  aims  and  discordant  cries  of 
short-sighted  mortals,  sweeping  their  tiny  efforts 
into  its  majestic  current,  and  making  all  con- 
tribute to  the  fulfilment  of  God's  will. 

From  the  very  outset  the  planting  of  Virginia 
had  been  watched  with  wrath  and  chagrin  by  the 
Spanish  court.  Within  the  last  few  years  a  Vir- 
ginian scholar,  Alexander  Brown,  has  collected 
and  published  a  large  number  of  manuscript  let- 
ters and  other  documents  preserved  in  the  Spanish 
archives  at  Simancas,  which  serve  to  illustrate  the 
Hostility  of  situation  in  detail.  Very  little  of  impor- 
Spain.  tance  happened  in  London  that  the  am- 
bassador Zuniga  did  not  promptly  discover  and 
straightway  report  in  cipher  to  Madrid.  We  can 
now  read  for  the  first  time  many  memoranda  of 
secret  sessions  of  Philip  III.  and  his  ministers,  in 
which  this  little  Protestant  colony  was  the  theme 
of  discussion.  It  was  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  not  easy 
to  extract  unless  Spain  was  prepared  for  war  with 
Great  Britain.  At  first  the  very  weakness  of  the 
colony  served  to  keep  this  enemy's  hands  off ;  if 
it  was  on  the  point  of  dying  a  natural  death,  as 
seemed  likely,  it  was  hardly  worth  while  to  repeat 
the  horrors  of  Florida.  In  1612,  after  Sir  Thomas 
Dale's  administration  had  begun,  Spain  again 
took  the  alarm  ;  for  the  moment  a  war  with  Eng- 
land was  threatened,  and  if  it  had  broken  out 
Virginia  would  have  been  one  of  the  first  points 


A   SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  195 

attacked.  But  the  deaths  of  Lord  Salisbury  and 
of  Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  in  1612,  changed  the 
policy  of  both  Philip  and  James.  There  was  now 
some  hope  of  detaching  the  latter  from  Protestant 
alliances,  and  Philip's  designs  upon  Virginia  were 
subordinated  to  the  far  larger  purpose  of  winning 
back  England  herself  into  the  Catholic  ranks.  A 
plan  was  made  for  marrying  the  Infanta  Maria  to 
Baby  Charles,  and  with  this  end  in  view 
one  of  the  ablest  of  Spanish  diplomats, 
Count  Gondomar  (to  give  him  at  once  match- 
his  best-known  title),  was  sent  as  ambassador  to 
London.  Charles  was  only  twelve  years  old,  and 
an  immediate  wedding  was  not  expected,  but  the 
match  could  be  kept  dangling  before  James  as  a 
bait,  and  thus  his  movements  might  be  guided. 
Should  the  marriage  finally  be  made,  Gondomar 
believed  that  Charles  could  be  converted  to  his 
bride's  faith,  and  then  England  might  be  made  to 
renew  her  allegiance  to  Rome.  Gondomar  was 
mightily  mistaken  in  the  English  people,  but  he 
was  not  mistaken  in  their  king.  James  was  ready 
to  swallow  bait,  hook,  and  all.  Gondomar  com- 
pletely fascinated  him,  —  one  might  almost  say, 
hypnotized  him,  —  so  that  for  the  next  ten  years 
one  had  but  to  shake  that  Spanish  match  before 
him  and  he  would  follow,  whatever  might  betide. 
The  official  policy  of  England  was  thus  often 
made  distasteful  to  Englishmen,  and  the  senti- 
ment of  loyalty  to  the  sovereign  was  impaired. 

To  Gondomar  the  king  was  in  the  habit  of  con- 
fiding his  grievances,  and  in  1614,  after  his  angry 
dissolution  of  Parliament,  he  said  to  him  one  day : 


196     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

"  There  is  one  thing  I  have  here,  which  your  king 
in  Spain  has  not,  and  that  is  a  Parliament  of  500 
members.  ...  I  am  surprised  that  my  ancestors 
should  ever  have  permitted  such  an  institution  to 
come  into  existence.  I  am  a  stranger  and  found 
it  here  when  I  arrived,  so  I  am  obliged  to  put  up 
with  what  I  cannot  get  rid  of."  Here  James 
stopped  short  and  turned  red  in  the  face,  at  hav- 
ing thus  carelessly  admitted  his  own  lack 

Gondomar's         „  .  ,  j-i  «i 

advice  to  oi  omnipotence,  whereupon  the  wily 
Spaniard  smiled  and  reminded  him  that 
at  all  events  it  was  only  at  his  royal  pleasure  that 
this  very  disagreeable  assembly  could  be  called 
together.1  James  acted  on  this  hint,  and  did  not 
summon  a  Parliament  again  for  seven  years.  It 
is  worth  remembering  in  this  connection  that  at 
this  very  time  the  representatives  of  the  people  in 
France  were  dismissed  and  not  called  together 
again  until  1789. 

While  Parliament  was  not  sitting,  the  sort  of 
discussion  that  James  found  so  hateful  was  kept 
up  at  the  meetings  of  the  London  Company  for 
Virginia,  which  were  commonly  held  at  the 
princely  mansion  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith.  Against 
this  corporation  Gondomar  dropped  his  sweet  poi- 
son into  the  king's  ear.  The  government  of  colo- 
nies, he  said,  is  work  fit  only  for  monarchs,  and 
cannot  safely  be  entrusted  to  a  roomful  of  gab- 
bling subiects :  beware  of  such  meet- 
More  advice.  .  "it  -, 

ings  ;  you  will  find  them  but  "  a  semi- 
nary to  a  seditious  Parliament."  Before  James 
had  profited  by  these  warnings,  however,  the  case 

1  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  ii.  251. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  197 

of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  came  up  to  absorb  his  at- 
tention. A  rare  chance  —  as  strange  and  sad  as 
anything  that  the  irony  of  human  destiny  can 
show  —  was  offered  for  Spain  to  wreak  her  malice 
upon  Virginia  in  the  person  of  the  earliest  and 
most  illustrious  of  its  founders. 

In  1603,  not  long  after  King  James's  arrival  in 
England,  Raleigh  had  been  charged  with  compli- 
city in  Lord  Cobham's  abortive  conspiracy  for 
getting  James  set  aside  in  favour  of  his  cousin, 
Lady  Arabella  Stuart.  This  charge  is 

-ii  f  i     i       Imprison- 

proved  to   have    been   ill-lounded; 


Raleigh. 

but  James  already  hated  Raleigh  with 
the  measure  of  hatred  which  he  dealt  out  to  so 
many  of  Elizabeth's  favourites.  After  a  trial  in 
which  the  common  -law  maxim,  that  innocence 
must  be  presumed  until  guilt  is  proved,  was  read 
backward,  as  witches  were  said  to  read  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  summoning  Old  Nick,  Sir  Walter  was 
found  guilty  of  high  treason  and  condemned  to 
death.  The  wrath  of  the  people  was  such  that 
James,  who  did  not  yet  feel  his  position  quite 
secure,  did  not  venture  to  carry  out  the  sentence. 
He  contented  himself  with  plundering  Sir  Wal- 
ter's estates,  while  the  noble  knight  was  kept  for 
more  than  twelve  years  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower, 
where  he  solaced  himself  with  experiments  in 
chemistry  and  with  writing  that  delightful  His- 
tory of  the  World  which  is  one  of  the  glories  of 
English  prose  literature.  In  1616,  at  the  inter- 
cession of  Villiers,  Raleigh  was  set  free.  On  his 
expedition  to  Guiana  in  1595  he  had  discovered 
gold  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Caroni  River  in 


198    OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

what  is  now  Venezuela.  In  his  attempt  to  dis- 
pense with  parliaments  James  was  at  his  wits' 
end  for  money,  and  he  thought  something  might 
Eaieigh  re-  be  g°t  by  sending  Raleigh  back  to  take 
lentfc*1"1  possession  of  the  place.  It  is  true  that 
Spain  claimed  that  country,  but  so  did 
James  on  the  strength  of  Raleigh's  own  discov- 
eries, and  if  any  complication  should  arise  there 
were  ways  of  crawling  out.  Raleigh  had  misgiv- 
ings about  starting  on  such  an  adventure  without 
first  obtaining  a  pardon  in  set  form  ;  but  Sir  Fran- 
cis Bacon  is  said  to  have  assured  him  that  the 
king,  having  under  the  privy  seal  made  him  ad- 
miral of  a  fleet,  with  power  of  martial  law  over 
sailors  and  officers,  had  substantially  condoned  all 
offences,  real  or  alleged.  A  man  could  not  at  one 
and  the  same  time  be  under  attaint  of  treason  and 
also  an  admiral  in  active  service.  Before  Raleigh 
started  James  made  him  explain  the  details  of  his 
scheme  and  lay  down  his  route  on  a  chart,  and 
he  promised  on  the  sacred  word  of  a  king  not  to 
divulge  this  information  to  any  human  creature. 
It  was  only  the  sacred  word  of  a  Stuart  king. 
James  may  have  meant  to  keep  it,  but  his  evil 
genius  was  not  far  off.  The  lifelike  portrait  of 
Count  Gondomar,  superbly  painted  by  the  elder 
Daniel  Mytens,  hangs  in  the  palace  at  Hampton 
Court,  and  one  cannot  look  on  it  for  a  moment 
without  feeling  that  Mephistopheles  himself  must 
have  sat  for  it.  The  bait  of  the  Infanta,  with  a 
dowry  of  2,000,000  crowns  in  hard  cash,  was  once 
more  thrown  successfully,  and  James  told  every 
detail  of  Raleigh's  plans  to  the  Spaniard,  who 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  199 

sent  the  intelligence  post-haste  to  Madrid.  So 
when  the  English  fleet  arrived  at  the  mouths  of 
the  Orinoco,  a  Spanish  force  awaited  them  and 
attacked  their  exploring  party.  In  the  TheMng-s 
fight  that  ensued  Kaleigh's  son  Walter  treachery- 
was  slain  ;  though  the  English  were  victorious,  the 
approaches  to  the  gold  fields  were  too  strongly 
guarded  to  be  carried  by  the  force  at  their  com- 
mand, and  thus  the  enterprise  was  baffled.  The 
gold  fields  remained  for  Spain,  but  with  the  fast 
increasing  paralysis  of  Spanish  energy  they  were 
soon  neglected  and  forgotten ;  their  existence  was 
denied  and  Raleigh's  veracity  doubted,  until  in 
1889  they  were  rediscovered  and  identified  by  the 
Venezuelan  Inspector  of  Mines.1  Since  the  expe- 
dition was  defeated  by  the  treachery  of  his  own 
sovereign,  nothing  was  left  for  the  stricken  admi- 
ral but  to  return  to  England.  The  Spanish  court 
loudly  clamoured  for  his  death,  on  the  ground  that 
he  had  undertaken  a  piratical  excursion  against  a 
country  within  Spanish  jurisdiction.  His  wife 
cleverly  planned  an  escape  to  France,  but  a  Judas 
in  the  party  arrested  him  and  he  was  sent  to  the 
Tower.  The  king  promised  Gondomar  that  Ra- 
leigh should  be  publicly  executed,  either  in  Lon- 
don or  in  Madrid ;  but  on  second  thought  the 
latter  would  not  do.  To  surrender  him  to  Spain 
would  be  to  concede  Spain's  claim  to  Judiciai 
Guiana.  Without  conceding  this  claim  SS^^0* 
there  was  nothing  for  which  to  punish  him.  l 
Accordingly  James  in  this  year  1618  revived  the 

1  Stebbing'a   Ralegh,  p.    121 ;   cf.   Bates,   Central  and   South 
America,  p.  436. 


200     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

old  death  sentence  of  1603,  and  Spain  drank  a 
deep  draught  of  revenge  when  the  hero  of  Cadiz 
and  Fayal  was  beheaded  in  the  Palace  Yard  at 
Westminster ;  a  scene  fit  to  have  made  Elizabeth 
turn  in  her  grave  in  the  Abbey  hard  by.  A  fouler 
judicial  murder  never  stained  the  annals  of  any 
country.1 

The  silly  king  gained  nothing  by  his  vile  treach- 
ery. Popular  execration  in  England  at  once  set 
him  up  in  a  pillory  from  which  posterity  is  not 
likely  to  take  him  down.  The  Spanish  council  of 
state  advised  Philip  III.  to  send  him  an  autograph 
letter  of  thanks,2  but  the  half-promised  Infanta 
with  her  rich  dowry  kept  receding  like  the  grapes 
from  eager  Tantalus.  A  dwindling  exchequer 
would  soon  leave  James  with  no  resource  except 
summoning  once  more  that  odious  Parliament. 
Meanwhile  in  the  London  Company  for  Virginia 
there  occurred  that  change  of  political  drift  where- 
of the  election  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  over  Sir 
Thomas  Smith,  aided  though  it  had  been  by  a  pri- 
vate quarrel,  was  one  chief  symptom.  That  elec- 
tion revealed  the  alarming  growth  of  hostility  in 
the  city  of  London  to  the  king's  pretensions  and 

1  Some  lines  in  sweet  Saxon  English,  written  by  Raleigh  on  the 
fly-leaf  of  his  Bible,  shortly  before  his  death,  are  worth  remem- 
bering :  — 

"  Even  such  is  Time,  that  takes  on  trust 
Our  youth,  our  joys,  and  all  we  have, 
And  pays  us  but  with  age  and  dust ; 
Who  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 

When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 
Shuts  up  the  record  of  our  days. 
Yet  from  this  earth,  this  grave,  this  dust, 
The  Lord  shall  raise  me  up,  I  trust." 

2  Stebbing's  Ralegh,  p.  386. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  201 

to  the  court  party.1    James  had  said  just  before 

the  election,  "Choose  the  Devil  if  you 

will,  but  not  Sir  Edwin  Sandys."     From  pony's  eiec- 

i          •!•  tion  in  1620. 

that  time  forth  the  king  s  hostility  to 
the  Company  scarcely  needed  Gondomar's  skilful 
nursing.  It  grew  apace  till  it  became  aggressive, 
not  to  say  belligerent.  At  the  election  in  1620 
it  was  the  intention  of  the  majority  in  the  Com- 
pany to  reelect  Sandys,  with  whose  management 
they  were  more  than  pleased.  Nearly  500  mem- 
bers were  present  at  the  meeting.  It  was  the  cus- 
tom for  three  candidates  to  be  named  and  voted 
for,  one  after  another,  by  ballot,  and  a  plurality 
sufficed  for  a  choice.  On  this  occasion  the  name 
of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  first  of  three,  was  about  to 
be  put  to  vote,  when  some  gentlemen  of  the  king's 
household  came  in  and  interrupted  the  proceed- 
ings. The  king,  said  their  spokesman,  .  t 
positively  forbade  the  election  of  Sir  Ed-  attempt  to 

•      a        i  TT-  •  -IT          interfere. 

win  oandys.     His  Majesty  was  unwilling 

to  infringe  the  rights  of  the  Company,  and  would 

therefore  himself  propose  names,  even  as  many  as 

four,  on  which  a  vote  might  be  taken.    The  names 

were  forthwith  read,  and  turned  out  to  be  those 

of  Sir  Thomas  Smith  and  three  of  his  intimate 

friends. 

This  impudent  interference  was  received  with 
a  silence  more  eloquent  than  words,  a  profound 
silence  that  might  be  felt.  After  some  minutes 
came  murmurs  and  wrathful  ejaculations,  among 
which  such  expressions  as  "  tyranny  "  and  "  inva- 
sion of  chartered  rights  "  could  be  plainly  heard. 
1  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  iiL  161. 


202    OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

The  motion  was  made  that  the  king's  messengers 
should  leave  the  room  while  the  situation  was  dis- 
cussed. "  No,"  said  the  Earl  of  Southampton, 
"  let  them  stay  and  hear  what  is  said."  This  mo- 
tion prevailed.  Then  Sir  Lawrence  Hyde  moved 
Reading  of  tna*  *ne  charter  be  read,  and  his  motion 
the  charter.  was  g^ted  witn  One  of  those  dutiful 

but  ominous  cries  so  common  in  that  age ;  from 
all  parts  of  the  room  it  resounded,  "  The  charter ! 
the  charter  ! !  God  save  the  King !  "  The  roll  of 
parchment  was  brought  forward  and  read  aloud  by 
the  secretary.  "Mr.  Chairman,"  said  Hyde,  "the 
words  of  the  charter  are  plain ;  the  election  of  a 
treasurer  is  left  to  the  free  choice  of  this  Com- 
pany. His  Majesty  seems  to  labour  under  some 
misunderstanding,  and  I  doubt  not  these  gentle- 
men will  undeceive  him." 

For  a  few  minutes  no  one  replied,  and  there 
was  a  buzz  of  informal  conversation  about  the 
room,  some  members  leaving  their  seats  to  speak 
with  friends  not  sitting  near  them.  One  of 
our  accounts  says  that  some  of  the  king's  emis- 
saries stepped  out  and  sought  his  presence,  and 
when  he  heard  what  was  going  on  he  looked  a 
little  anxious  and  his  stubbornness  was  somewhat 
abated ;  he  said  of  course  he  did  not  wish  to  re- 
strict the  Company's  choice  to  the  names  he  had 
mentioned.  Whether  this  concession  was  reported 
withdrawal  back  to  the  meeting,  we  are  not  in- 
of  Sandys.  forme(j,  but  probably  it  was.  When  the 
meeting  was  called  to  order,  Sir  Robert  Phillips, 
who  was  sitting  near  Sandys,  got  up  and  an- 
aovmced  that  that  gentleman  wished  to  withdraw 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  203 

his  name ;  he  would  therefore  propose  that  the 
king's  messengers  should  nominate  two  persons 
while  the  Company  should  nominate  a  third.  The 
motion  was  carried,  and  the  Company  nominated 
the  Earl  of  Southampton.  The  balloting  showed 
an  extremely  meagre  vote  for  the  king's  nominees. 
It  was  then  moved  and  carried  that  in  the  earl's 
case  the  ballot  should  be  dispensed  with 
and  the  choice  signified  by  acclamation  ;  Southamp- 
and  then  with  thundering  shouts  of 
"  Southampton !  Southampton,"  the  meeting  was 
brought  to  a  close.  The  rebuke  to  the  king  could 
hardly  have  been  more  pointed,  and  in  such  a 
scene  we  recognize  the  prophecy  of  the  doom  to 
which  James's  wrong  policy  was  by  and  by  to 
hasten  his  son. 

The  choice  of  Shakespeare's  friend  instead  of 
Sandys  made  no  difference  whatever  in  the  policy 
of  the  Company.  From  that  time  forth  its  ruling 
spirits  were  Southampton  and  Sandys  and  Nich- 
olas Ferrar,  the  deputy-treasurer.  The  name  of 
this  young  man  calls  for  more  than  a  passing  men- 
tion. Better  known  in  ecclesiastical  than  Nichola8 
in  political  history,  he  was  distinguished  Ferrar- 
and  memorable  in  whatever  he  undertook,  and 
among  all  the  thronging  figures  in  England's  past 
he  is  one  of  the  most  sweetly  and  solemnly  beauti- 
ful. His  father,  the  elder  Nicholas  Ferrar,  who 
died  in  April,  1620,  just  before  the  election  I  have 
been  describing,  was  one  of  London's  merchant 
princes,  and  it  was  in  the  parlour  of  his  hospitable 
house  in  St.  Osyth's  Lane  —  now  known  as  Size 
Lane,  near  the  Poultry  —  that  the  weekly  meetings 


204    OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

of  the  Virginia  Council  were  in  these  latter  days 
regularly  held.  In  this  house  the  young  Nicholas 
was  born  in  1593.  He  had  spent  seven  years  in 
study  at  Cambridge  and  five  years  in  very  exten- 
sive travel  upon  the  continent  of  Europe,  when  at 
the  age  of  twenty-seven  he  came  to  devote  all  his 
energies  for  a  time  to  the  welfare  of  the  colony  of 
Virginia.  From  early  boyhood  he  was  noticeable 
for  taking  a  grave  and  earnest  but  by  no  means 
sombre  view  of  life,  its  interests  and  its  duties. 
For  him  frivolity  had  no  charm,  coarse  pleasures 
were  but  loathsome,  yet  he  was  neither  stern  nor 
cold.  Through  every  fibre  of  his  being  he  was  the 
refined  and  courteous  gentleman,  a  true  Sir  Gala- 
had fit  to  have  found  the  Holy  Grail.  His  scholar- 
ship was  thorough  and  broad.  An  excellent 
mathematician  and  interested  in  the  new  dawning 
of  physical  science,  he  was  also  well  versed  in  the 
classics  and  in  modern  languages  and  knew  some- 
thing of  Oriental  philology,  but  he  was  most  fond 
of  the  devotional  literature  of  the  church.  His 
intensely  religious  mood  was  part  of  the  great 
spiritual  revival  of  which  Puritanism  was  the 
mightiest  manifestation  ;  yet  Nicholas  Ferrar  was 
no  Puritan  either  in  doctrine  or  in  ecclesiastical 
policy.  In  these  matters  his  sympathies  were 
rather  with  William  Laud.  At  the  same  time  his 
career  is  a  living  refutation  of  the  common  notion 
that  there  is  a  necessary  connection  between  the 
religion  of  Laud  and  the  politics  of  Strafford,  for 
his  own  political  views  were  as  liberal  as  those  of 
Hampden  and  Pym.  Indeed  Ferrar  was  a  rare 
product  of  the  harmonious  cooperation  of  the  ten- 


4   SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  205 

dencies  represented  respectively  in  the  Renais- 
sance and  in  the  Reformation,  tendencies  which 
the  general  want  of  intelligence  and  moral  sound- 
ness in  mankind  has  more  commonly  brought  into 
barren  conflict.  His  ideal  of  life  was  much  like 
that  which  Milton  set  forth  with  matchless  beauty 
in  "  II  Penseroso."  Its  leading  motive,  strengthen- 
ing with  his  years,  was  the  feeling  of  duty  toward 
the  "  studious  cloister's  pale,"  and  the  part  of  his 
career  that  is  now  best  remembered  is  the  found- 
ing of  that  monastic  home  at  Little  Gid-  Littie 
ding,  where  study  and  charitable  deeds  Glddin&- 
and  prayer  and  praise  should  go  on  unceasing, 
where  at  whatsoever  hour  of  day  or  night  the 
weary  wayfarer  through  the  broad  fen  country 
should  climb  that  hilly  range  in  Huntingdon,  he 
should  hear  the  "  pealing  organ  blow  to  the  full- 
voiced  choir  below,"  and  entering  should  receive 
spiritual  comfort  and  strength,  and  go  thence  on 
his  way  with  heart  uplifted.  In  that  blest  retreat, 
ever  busy  with  good  works,  lived  Nicholas  Ferrar 
after  the  downfall  of  the  great  London  Company 
until  his  own  early  death  in  1637  at  the  age  of 
forty-four.  Of  great  or  brilliant  deeds  according 
to  the  world's  usual  standard  this  man  did  none ; 
yet  the  simple  record  of  his  life  brings  us  into 
such  an  atmosphere  of  holiness  and  love  that  man- 
kind can  never  afford  to  let  it  fade  and  die. 

This  Protestant  saint,  withal,  was  no  vague 
dreamer,  but  showed  in  action  the  practical  sa- 
gacity that  came  by  inheritance  from  London's 
best  stock  of  bold  and  thrifty  citizens.  As  one  of 
the  directing  minds  of  a  commercial  corporation, 


206     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

he  showed  himself  equal  to  every  occasion  that 
arose.  He  is  identified  with  the  last  days  of  the 
London  Company,  and  his  family  archives  pre- 
serve the  record  of  its  downfall.  It  is  thence  that 
we  get  the  account  of  the  election  of  Southamp- 
ton and  many  other  interesting  scenes  and  im- 
portant facts  that  would  otherwise  have  passed 
into  oblivion. 

After  Southampton's  election  the  king's  hos- 
tility to  the  Company  became  deadly,  and  within 
that  corporation  itself  he  found  allies  who  when 
once  they  found  themselves  unable  to  rule  it  were 
only  too  willing  to  contribute  to  its  ruin.  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  and  his  friends  now  accepted  their 
defeat  as  decisive  and  final,  and  allowed  them- 
selves to  become  disloyal  to  the  Corn- 
in  the  pany.  Probably  they  would  have  ex- 
pressed it  differently ;  they  would  have 
said  that  out  of  regard  for  Virginia  they  felt  it 
their  duty  to  thwart  the  reckless  men  who  had 
gained  control  of  her  destinies.  Unfortunately 
for  their  version  of  the  case,  the  friends  of  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  were  charged  with  the  burden  of 
Argall's  misdemeanours,  and  the  regard  which 
that  governor  had  shown  for  Virginia  was  too 
much  like  the  peculiar  interest  that  a  wolf  feels 
in  the  sheepfold.  It  is  not  meant  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  court  party  who  tried  to  screen  Argall 
were  all  unscrupulous  men ;  such  was  far  from 
being  the  case,  but  in  public  contests  nothing  is 
more  common  than  to  see  men  personally  stainless 
blindly  accept  and  defend  the  rogues  of  their  own 
party.  In  the  heat  of  battle  the  private  quarrel 


A   SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  207 

between  Smith  and  the  Earl  of  Warwick  was 
either  made  up  or  allowed  to  drop  out  of  sight. 
Both  worked  together,  and  in  harmony  with  the 
king,  to  defeat  Southampton  and  Sandys  and 
Ferrar.  In  the  Company's  quarter  sessions  the 
disputes  rose  so  high  that  the  meetings  were  said 
to  be  more  like  cockpits  than  courts.1  On  one 
occasion  a  duel  between  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and 
Lord  Cavendish,  eldest  son  of  the  first  Earl  of 
Devonshire,  was  narrowly  prevented.  As  Cham- 
berlain, one  of  the  court  gossips  of  the  day,  writes : 
"  Last  week  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  the  Lord 
Cavendish  fell  so  foul  at  a  Virginia  .  .  .  court 
that  the  lie  passed  and  repassed,  and  they  are 
[gone  out]  to  try  their  fortune,  yet  we  do  not  hear 
they  are  met,  so  that  there  is  hope  they  may  re- 
turn safe.  In  the  meantime  their  ladies  forget 
not  their  old  familiarity,  but  meet  daily  to  lament 
that  misfortune.  The  factions  in  [the  Company] 
are  grown  so  violent  as  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines 
were  not  more  animated  one  against  another ;  and 
they  seldom  meet  upon  the  Exchange,  or  in  the 
streets,  but  they  brabble  and  quarrel."  2 

In  1621  the  king,  having  arrived  at  the  end  of 
his  purse,  seized  what  he  thought  a  favourable 
moment  for  summoning  Parliament,  but  found 
that  body  more  intractable  than  ever.  The  Com- 
mons busied  themselves  with  attacking  monopo- 
lies and  impeaching  the  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon 
for  taking  bribes.  Then  they  expressed  unquali- 
fied disapproval  of  the  Spanish  match,  whereupon 

1  Brown's  Genesis,  ii.  1016. 

2  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  413. 


208     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  king  told  them  to  mind  their  own  business 
The  king  re-  an^  not  meddle  with  his.  "  A  long  and 
thekHd0use  of  angry  dispute  ensued,  which  terminated 
commons.  in  ft  strong  protest,  in  which  the  Com- 
mons declared  that  their  privileges  were  not  the 
gift  of  the  Crown,  but  the  natural  birthright  of 
English  subjects,  and  that  matters  of  public  inter- 
est were  within  their  province."  l  This  protest  so 
infuriated  the  king  that  he  tore  it  into  pieces,  and 
forthwith  dissolved  Parliament,  sending  Pym, 
Southampton,  and  other  leaders  to  prison.  This 
was  in  January,  1622. 

As  more  than  a  hundred  members  of  this  fro- 
ward  Parliament  were  also  members  of  the  Com- 
pany, it  is  not  strange  that  the  king  should  have 
watched  more  eagerly  than  ever  for  a  chance  to 
attack  that  corporation.  A  favourable  opportunity 
was  soon  offered  him.  A  certain  Nathaniel  Butler, 
governor  of  the  Bermuda  Islands,  was  accused  of 
Nathaniel  extorting  a  large  sum  of  money  from 
Mst£ama-nd  some  Spaniards  who  had  been  ship- 
phiet.  wrecked  there,  and  very  damaging  evi- 

dence was  brought  against  him  ;  but  he  seems  to 
have  known  how  to  enlist  powerful  friends  on  his 
side.  On  being  summoned  to  England  he  went 
first  to  Virginia,  where  his  services  were  in  de- 
mand during  the  brief  but  bloody  Indian  war  that 
followed  upon  the  massacre  of  1622.  Then  after 
arriving  in  England  he  published,  in  April,  1623, 
a  savage  attack  upon  the  London  Company,  en- 
titled "The  Unmasked  Face  of  our  Colony  in 
Virginia."  Simultaneously  with  the  publication 

1  Bright,  History  of  England,  ii.  604. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  209 

of  this  pamphlet  the  charges  against  its  author 
were  dropped  and  were  nevermore  heard  of.  Such 
a  coincidence  is  extremely  significant ;  it  was  com- 
monly believed  at  the  time  that  Butler  bought  the 
suppression  of  the  charges  by  turning  backbiter. 
His  attack  upon  the  Company  is  so  frivolous  as 
plainly  to  indicate  its  origin  in  pure  malice.  It  is 
interesting  as  the  first  of  the  long  series  of  books 
about  America  printed  in  England  which  have 
sorely  irritated  their  American  readers.  Sixteen 
of  the  old  Virginia  settlers  who  were  at 
that  moment  in  London  answered  it  with  charges  and 
convincing  force.  Some  of  this  Butler's 
accusations,  with  the  answers  of  the  settlers,  may 
fitly  be  cited  for  the  side-light  they  throw  upon 
the  state  of  things  in  Virginia,  as  well  as  upon  the 
peculiar  sinuosities  of  Stuart  kingcraft. 

"  1.    I  found  the  plantations  generally  seated 
upon  meer  salt  marishes  full  of  infectious  bogs  and 
muddy  creeks   and   lakes,   and   thereby  ^^ 
subjected  to  all  those  inconveniencies  and  malana  • 
diseases  which  are  so  commonly  found  in  the  most 
unsound  and  most   unhealthy  parts  of  England, 
whereof  every  country  and  climate  hath  some. 

"Answer:  We  say  that  there  is  no  place  in- 
habited but  is  conveniently  habitable.  And  for 
the  first  plantation,  which  is  Kiccoutan,  .  .  .  men 
may  enjoy  their  healths  and  live  as  plentifully  as 
in  any  part  of  England,  .  .  .  yet  that  there  are 
marishes  in  some  places  we  acknowledge.  ...  As 
for  bogs,  we  know  of  none  in  all  the  country, 
and  for  the  rest  of  the  plantations,  as  Newport's 
News,  Blunt  Point,  Warriscoyak,  Martin's  Hun- 


210     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

dred  .  .  .  and  all  the  plantations  right  over 
against  James  City,  and  all  the  plantations  above 
these  (which  are  many)  .  .  .  they  are  [all]  very 
fruitful,  .  .  .  pleasant,  .  .  .  healthful,  and  high 
land,  except  James  City,  which  yet  is  as  high  as 
Deptford  or  Ratcliffe. 

"  2.  I  found  the  shores  and  sides  of  those  parts 
of  the  main  river  where  our  plantations  are  settled 
everywhere  so  shallow  as  no  boats  can 
togo^e's  approach  the  shores,  so  that — besides 
the  difficulty,  danger,  and  spoil  of  goods 
in  the  landing  of  them  —  people  are  forced  to  a 
continual  wading  and  wetting  of  themselves,  and 
that  [too]  in  the  prime  of  winter,  when  the  ships 
commonly  arrive,  and  thereby  get  such  violent 
surfeits  of  cold  upon  cold  as  seldom  leave  thein 
until  they  leave  [off]  to  live. 

"  Answer :  That  generally  for  the  plantations  at 
all  times  from  half  flood  to  half  ebb  any  boat  that 
draws  betwixt  3  and  4  foot  water  may  safely  come 
in  and  land  their  goods  dry  on  shore  without 
wading.  And  for  further  clearing  of  his  false 
objections,  the  seamen  ...  do  at  all  times  deliver 
the  goods  they  bring  to  the  owners  dry  on  shore, 
whereby  it  plainly  appears  not  any  of  the  country 
people  .  .  .  are  by  this  means  in  danger  of  their 
lives.  And  at  ...  many  plantations  below  James 
City,  and  almost  all  above,  they  may  at  all  times 
land  dry. 

"  3.  The  new  people  that  are  yearly  sent  over 
[who]  arrive  here  (for  the  most  part  very  un- 
seasonably in  winter)  find  neither  guest-house,  inn, 
nor  any  the  like  place  to  shroud  themselves  in  at 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  211 

their  arrival ;  [and]  not  so  much  as  a  stroke  is 
given  toward  any  such  charitable  work ; 
[so  that]  many  of  [these  new  comers] 
by  want  hereof  are  not  only  seen  dying 
under  hedges  and  in  the  woods,  but  being  dead  lie 
some  of  them  many  days  unregarded  and  unburied. 
"  Answer :  The  winter  is  the  most  healthful  time 
and  season  for  arrival  of  new  comers.  True  it  is 
that  as  yet  there  is  no  guest-house  or  place  of 
entertainment  for  strangers.  But  we  aver  it  was 
a  late  intent  ...  to  make  a  general  gathering  for 
the  building  of  such  a  convenient  house,  which  by 
this  time  had  been  in  good  forwardness,  had  it  not 
pleased  God  to  suffer  this  disaster  to  fall  out  by 
the  Indians.  But  although  there  be  no  public 
guest-house,  yet  are  new  comers  entertained  and 
lodged  and  provided  for  by  the  governor  in  private 
houses.  And  for  any  dying  in  the  fields  through 
this  defect,  and  lying  unburied,  we  are  altogether 
ignorant;  yet  that  many  [persons]  die  suddenly 
by  the  hand  of  God,  we  often  see  it  ...  fall  out 
even  in  this  flourishing  and  plentiful  city  [of 
London]  in  the  midst  of  our  streets.  As  for 
dying  under  hedges,  there  is  no  hedge  in  all  Vir- 
ginia. 

"  5.     Their  houses  are  generally  the  worst  that 
ever  I  saw,  the  meanest  cottages  in  England  being 
every  way  equal  (if  not  superior)  with  Mtothe 
the  most  of  the  best.     And  besides,  so  th^?8'and 
improvidently  and  scatteringly  are  they  Mtuatlons- 
seated  one  from  another  as  partly  by  their  dis- 
tance but  especially  by  the  interposition  of  creeks 


212     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

and  swamps  .  .  .  they  offer  all  advantages  to 
their  savage  enemies.  .  .  . 

"Answer:  The  houses  .  .  .  were  .  .  .  built 
for  use  and  not  for  ornament,  and  are  so  far  from 
being  so  mean  as  they  are  reported  that  throughout 
[England]  labouring  men's  houses  .  .  .  are  in  no 
wise  generally  for  goodness  to  be  compared  unto 
them.  And  for  the  houses  of  men  of  better  rank 
and  quality,  they  are  so  much  better  and  [so]  con- 
venient that  no  man  of  quality  without  blushing 
can  make  exception  against  them.  [As]  for  the 
creeks  and  swamps,  every  man  .  .  .  that  cannot 
go  by  land  hath  either  a  boat  or  a  canoe  for  the 
conveying  and  speedy  passage  to  his  neighbour's 
house.  .  .  ." l 

So  go  the  charges  and  the  answers.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  cite  any  further.  The  animus  of 
Captain  Butler's  pamphlet  is  sufficiently  apparent. 
He  wished  to  make  it  appear  that  things  were 
wretchedly  managed  in  Virginia,  and  that  there 
was  but  a  meagre  and  contemptible  result  to  show 
for  all  the  treasure  that  had  been  spent  and  all 
the  lives  that  had  been  lost.  Whatever  could 
weaken  people's  faith  in  the  colony,  check  emigra- 
Objectofthe  ti°n»  deter  subscriptions,  and  in  any  way 
charges.  embarrass  the  Company,  he  did  not  fail 
to  bring  forward.  Not  only  were  the  sites  un- 
healthy and  the  houses  mean,  but  the  fortifications 
were  neglected,  plantations  were  abandoned,  the 
kine  and  poultry  were  destroyed  by  Indians,  the 
assembly  enacted  laws  wilfully  divergent  from 
the  laws  of  England,  and  speculators  kept  engross- 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  pp.  395-401. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  213 

ing  wheat  and  maize  and  selling  them  at  famine 
prices ;  so  said  Butler,  and  knowing  how  effective 
a  bold  sweeping  lie  is  sure  to  be,  in  spite  of  prompt 
and  abundant  refutation,  he  ended  by  declaring 
that  not  less  than  10,000  persons  had  been  sent 
out  to  Virginia,  of  whom  "through  the  afore- 
named abuses  and  neglects  "  not  more  than  2,000 
still  remained  alive.  Therefore,  he  added,  unless 
the  dishonest  practices  of  the  Company  in  London 
and  the  wretched  bungling  of  its  officials  in  Vir- 
ginia be  speedily  redressed  "  by  some  divine  and 
supreme  hand,  .  .  .  instead  of  a  Plantation  it  will 
shortly  get  the  name  of  a  slaughter  house,  and 
[will]  justly  become  both  odious  to  ourselves  and 
contemptible  to  all  the  world." 

All  these  allegations  were  either  denied  or  sat- 
isfactorily explained  by  the  sixteen  settlers  then 
in  London,  and  their  sixteen    affidavits  njeassem- 
were  duly  sworn  to  before  a  notary  pub-  the^ueg^- 
lie.      Some   months   afterward,   Captain  tlons< 
Butler's  pamphlet  was  laid  before  the  assembly  of 
Virginia  and  elaborately  refuted.     Nothing  can  be 
clearer  than  the  fact  that  the  sympathies  of  the 
people  in  Virginia  were  entirely  on  the  side  of  the 
Company  under  its  present  management,  and  no 
fact  could  be  more  honourable  to  the  Company. 
From  first  to  last  the  proceedings  now  to  be  re- 
lated were  watched  in  Virginia  with  intense  anx- 
iety and  fierce  indignation. 

On  Thursday  of  Holy  Week,  1623,  a  formal 
complaint  against  the  Company,  embodying  such 
charges  as  those  I  have  here  recounted,  was  laid 
before  the  Privy  Council,  and  the  Lord  Treasurer 


214     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Cranfield,  better  known  as  Earl  of  Middlesex,  sent 
notice  of  it  to  Nicholas  Ferrar,  with  the 

An  answer 

demanded  of  demand  that  a  complete  answer  to  every 

Ferrar.  . 

particular  should  be  returned  by  the  next 
Monday  afternoon.  Ferrar  protested  against  such 
unseemly  haste,  but  the  Lord  Treasurer  was  inex- 
orable. Then  the  young  man  called  together  as 
many  of  the  Company  as  he  could  find  at  an 
hour's  notice  that  afternoon ;  they  met  in  his 
mother's  parlour,  and  he  read  aloud  the  com- 
plaint, which  took  three  hours.  Then  Lord  Cav- 
endish, Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  and  Nicholas  Ferrar 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  the  answer. 
"  These  three,"  says  our  chronicle,  "  made  it  mid- 
night ere  they  parted ;  they  ate  no  set  meals  ;  they 
slept  not  two  hours  all  Thursday  and  Friday 
nights ;  they  met  to  admire  each  other's  labours 
on  Saturday  night,  and  sat  in  judgment  on  the 
whole  till  five  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  ;  then 
they  divided  it  equally  among  six  nimble  scribes, 
and  went  to  bed  themselves,  as  it  was  high  time 
for  them.  The  transcribers  finished  by  five  o'clock 
Monday  morning;  the  Company  met  at  six  to 
review  their  labours,  and  by  two  in  the  afternoon 
the  answer  was  presented  at  the  Council  Board." 1 
This  answer  was  a  masterpiece  of  cogency.  It 
proved  the  baselessness  of  the  charges.  Either 
they  were  complete  falsehoods,  or  they  related  to 

disasters  directly  connected  with  the  In- 

A  cogent  . 

answer  is       dian  massacre,  which  was  not  due  to  any 

returned.  . 

provocation  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  or 
else  they  showed  the  effects  of  mismanagement  ia 

1  Carter's  Ferrar,  p.  71. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  215 

Sir  Thomas  Smith's  time,  especially  under  the 
tyrannical  administration  of  Argall  from  which 
the  colony  had  not  yet  fully  recovered.  In  short, 
such  of  the  charges  as  really  bore  against  the 
Company  were  successfully  shown  up  as  affecting 
its  old  government  under  Smith  and  Warwick, 
and  not  its  new  government  under  Sandys  and 
Southampton.  The  latter  was  cleared  of  every 
calumny,  and  its  absolute  integrity  and  vast  effi- 
ciency were  fully  established.  Such,  at  least,  is 
the  decisive  verdict  of  history,  but  the  lords  of  the 
Privy  Council  were  not  willing  to  accept  such  a 
result.  It  amounted  almost  to  an  impeachment  of 
the  court  party,  and  it  made  them  angry.  So  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  order 
that  Lord  Cavendish,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  and  Rev. 
Nicholas  Ferrar,  —  as  "  chief  actors  in  inditing 
and  penning  ...  an  impertinent  declaration  con- 
taining bitter  invectives  and  aspersions "  should 
be  confined  to  their  own  houses  until  further 
notice.1  The  object  of  this  was  to  prevent  them 
from  conferring  with  each  other.  Further  hostile 
inquiries  were  prosecuted,  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  detach  Ferrar  from  his  associates.  One 
day,  as  he  was  answering  some  queries  before  the 
Privy  Council,  one  of  the  lords  handed  him  an 
important  official  letter  to  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia. "  Who  draws  up  such  papers  ?  "  asked  the 
lord.  "  The  Company,"  replied  Ferrar  modestly. 
"  No,  no !  "  interrupted  another  lord,  "  we  know 
your  style ;  these  papers  are  all  yours,  and  they 
are  masterpieces."  The  letter  was  shown  to  the 
1  NeilTs  Virginia  Company,  p.  411. 


216     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

king,  who  was  pleased  to  observe,  "  Verily,  the 

young  man  hath  much  worth  in  him."     To  detach 

him  from  the  Company  the  king  offered  to  make 

him  clerk  of  the  Privy  Council  or  ambas- 

Attempts  to  en  -r-» 

corrupt  Fer-  sador  to  the  court  of  Savoy.     Both  were 

rar. 

fine  offers  for  a  man  only  in  his  thirtieth 
year,  but  Ferrar  was  not  to  be  tempted.  Then  an 
effort  was  made  to  induce  him  to  advise  the  Com- 
pany to  surrender  its  charter,  but  he  refused  with 
some  scorn.  A  great  number  of  the  nobility  and 
gentry,  he  said,  besides  merchants  and  artisans  of 
the  city  of  London,  relying  upon  the  royal  charter, 
had  engaged  in  a  noble  enterprise,  one  of  the  most 
honourable  that  England  had  ever  undertaken ; 
many  planters  in  Virginia  had  risked  their  estates 
and  lives  in  it ;  the  Lord  had  prospered  their  en- 
deavours, and  now  no  danger  threatened  the  col- 
ony save  the  malice  of  its  enemies ;  as  for  himself 
he  was  not  going  to  abuse  his  trust  by  deserting  it. 
While  these  things  were  going  on,  the  king 
appointed  a  board  of  commissioners  to  investigate 
the  affairs  of  Virginia,  and  the  spirit  in  which  they 
were  appointed  is  sufficiently  revealed  by  the  fact 
that  they  all  belonged  to  the  disaffected  faction  in 
the  Company  and  held  their  meetings  at  the  house 
of  Sir  Thomas  Smith.  One  of  their  number  was 

the  vindictive  and  unscrupulous  ex-gov- 

A  board  .of  f  * 

commission-    ernor,  bir  oamuel  Argall,  —  which  was 

era. 

much  like  setting  the  wolf  to  investigate 
the  dogs.  Some  of  these  commissioners  went  out 
to  Virginia  and  tried  to  entrap  the  assembly  into 
asking  for  a  new  charter.  It  was  all  in  vain. 
Governor,  council,  and  House  of  Burgesses  agreed 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  217 

that  they  were  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  present 
state  of  things  and  only  wanted  to  be  let  alone. 
Not  a  morsel  of  evidence  adverse  to  the  present 
management  of  the  Company  could  be  obtained 
from  any  quarter.  On  the  contrary,  the  assembly 
sent  to  England  an  eloquent  appeal,  afterward 
entitled  "  The  Tragical  Declaration  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Assembly,"  in  which  the  early  sufferings  of 
the  colony  and  its  recent  prosperity  were  passed  in 
review ;  the  document  concluded  with  an  expres- 
sion rather  more  forcible  than  one  is  accustomed 
to  find  in  decorous  and  formal  state  papers.  After 
describing  the  kind  of  management  under  which 
such  creatures  as  Argall  could  flourish,  the  docu- 
ment goes  on  to  say,  "  Rather  [than]  be  reduced 
to  live  under  the  like  government,  we  desire  his 
Majesty  that  commissioners  may  be  sent  over  with 
authority  to  hang  us." 

Long  before  this  appeal  reached  England,  the 
final  assault  upon  the  Company  had  begun.     In 
July,  1623,  the  attorney-general  reported  Attomey- 
his  opinion  that  it  was  advisable  for  the  fpSSSlTf  a 
king  to  take  the  government  of  Virginia  rwt™ar~ 
into  his  own  hands.    In  October  an  order  Berved- 
of  the  Privy  Council  announced  that  this  was  to 
be  done.     The  Company's  charter  was  to  be  re- 
scinded,  and   its  deputed  powers  of    sovereignty 
were  to  be  resumed  by  the  king.     This  meant  that 
the  king  would  thereafter  appoint  the  council  for 
Virginia  sitting  in  London.     He  would  also  ap- 
point the  governor  of  Virginia  with  his  colonial 
council.     Such  a  transformation  would  leave  the 
joint-stock  company  in  existence,  but  only  as  a 


218     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

body  of  traders  without  ascertained  rights  or  priv- 
ileges and  entirely  dependent  upon  royal  favour. 
No  settled  policy  could  thereafter  be  pursued,  and 
under  the  circumstances  the  change  was  a  death- 
blow to  the  Company.  Southampton  and  Ferrar 
refused  to  surrender,  and  referred  the  question  to 
their  next  quarter-sessions  to  be  held  in  November. 
Then  the  king  brought  suit  against  the  Company 
in  the  court  of  King's  Bench,  and  a  writ  of  quo 
warranto  was  served. 

Then  came  the  most  interesting  moment  of  all. 
The  only  hope  of  the  Company  lay  in  an  appeal 
Appeal  to  *°  Parliament,  and  that  last  card  was 

Parliament.  boldly  played>  Early  jn  1624  the  Span- 
ish match,  to  secure  which  the  miserable  king  had 
for  ten  years  basely  truckled  and  licked  the  hand 
of  England's  bitterest  enemies,  was  finally  broken 
off.  War  with  Spain  was  at  hand  ;  a  new  policy, 
of  helping  the  German  Protestants,  and  marrying 
Baby  Charles  to  a  French  princess,  was  to  be  con- 
sidered ;  and  much  money  was  needed.  So  James 
reluctantly  issued  writs  for  an  election,  and  the 
new  Parliament,  containing  Sandys  and  Ferrar, 
with  many  other  members  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, met  in  February.  In  April  a  petition  was 
presented  in  behalf  of  the  Virginia  Company,  and 
a  committee  had  been  appointed  to  consider  it, 
when  the  Speaker  read  a  message  from  the  king, 
forbidding  Parliament  to  meddle  with  the  matter. 
The  king  He  distinctly  announced  the  doctrine  that 
aiiowethe°  the  government  of  colonies  was  the  busi- 
appeai.  negs  of  fae  king  and  his  Privy  Council, 

and  that  Parliament  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  219 

This  memorable  doctrine  was  just  that  which  after- 
wards found  favour  with  the  American  colonists 
for  very  different  reasons  from  those  which  recom- 
mended it  to  King  James.  The  Americans  took 
this  view  because  they  were  not  represented  in 
Parliament,  and  intended  with  their  colonial  as- 
semblies to  hold  the  crown  officials,  the  royal  gov- 
ernors, in  check  just  as  Parliament  curbed  the 
Crown.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
this  had  come  to  be  the  generally  accepted  Ameri- 
can doctrine ;  it  is  interesting  to  see  it  asserted 
early  in  the  seventeenth  by  the  Crown  itself,  and 
in  the  interests  of  absolutism. 

In  1624  Parliament  was  not  in  good  condition 
for  quarrelling  with  the  king  upon  too  many  issues 
at  once.  So  it  acquiesced,  not  without 
some  grumbling,  in  the  royal  prohibition, 
and  the  petition  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany was  laid  upon  the  table.  A  few  weeks  later 
the  case  on  the  quo  warranto  was  argued  before 
the  court  of  King's  Bench.  The  attorney-general's 
argument  against  the  charter  was  truly  ingenious. 
That  charter  allowed  the  Company  to  carry  the 
king's  subjects  across  the  ocean  to  Virginia ;  if 
such  a  privilege  were  to  be  exercised  without  limi- 
tation, it  might  end  in  conveying  all  the  king's 
subjects  to  America,  leaving  Great  Britain  a 
howling  wilderness !  Such  a  privilege  was  too 
great  to  be  bestowed  upon  any  corporate  body, 
and  therefore  the  charter  ought  to  be  xhecharter 
annulled.  Such  logic  was  irresistible,  j""""^' 
and  on  the  16th  of  June  the  chief  justice  l 
declared  "  that  the  Patent  or  Charter  of  the  Com- 


220     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

pany  of  English  Merchants  trading  to  Virginia, 
and  pretending  to  exercise  a  power  and  author- 
ity over  his  Majesty's  good  subjects  there,  should 
be  thenceforth  null  and  void."  Next  day  Thomas 
Wentworth,  afterward  Earl  of  Strafford,  gave 
vent  to  his  glee  in  a  private  letter :  "  Methinks,  I 
imagine  the  Quaternity  before  this  have  had  a 
meeting  of  comfort  and  consolation,  stirring  up 
each  other  to  bear  it  courageously,  and  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys  in  the  midst  of  them  sadly  sighing  forth, 
Oh,  the  burden  of  Virginia."  By  the  Quaternity 
he  meant  Southampton,  Sandys,  Ferrar,  and  Cav- 
endish. On  the  26th  of  June  the  Privy  Council 
ordered  Nicholas  Ferrar  to  bring  all  the  books 
and  papers  of  the  late  Company  and  hand  them 
over  to  its  custody. 

Ferrar  could  not  disobey  the  order,  but  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  the  records  of  the  Com- 
pany must  be  preserved,  for  its  justifica- 

Ferrarhas        !•  •        ,1  f  '.A 

the  records  tion  in  the  eyes  ot  posterity.  As  soon 
as  he  saw  that  the  day  of  doom  was  at 
hand  he  had  copies  made.  One  of  Ferrar's  dear- 
est friends  was  the  delightful  poet,  George  Her- 
bert, a  young  man  of  his  own  age,  whose  widowed 
mother  had  married  Sir  John  Danvers,  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  Company.  They  lived  in  a 
fine  old  house  in  Chelsea,  that  had  once  been  part 
of  the  home  of  Sir  Thomas  More.  There  Nicho- 
las Ferrar  passed  many  a  pleasant  evening  with 
George  Herbert  and  his  eccentric  and  skeptical 
brother,  afterward  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury ; 
and  if  ever  their  talk  grew  a  bit  too  earnest  and 
warm,  we  can  fancy  it  mellowed  again  as  that 


A  SEMINARY  OF  SEDITION.  221 

other  sweet  poet,  Dr.  Donne,  dropped  in,  with 
gentle  Izaak  Walton,  as  used  often  to  happen.  In 
that  house  of  friends,  Ferrar  had  a  clerk  locked 
up  with  the  records  until  they  were  all  copied, 
everything  relating  to  the  administrations  of  San- 
dys and  Southampton,  from  the  election  of  the 
former,  in  April,  1619,  down  to  June  7,  1624. 
The  copy  was  then  carefully  compared  with  the 
original  documents,  and  its  perfect  accuracy  duly 
attested  by  the  Company's  secretary,  Edward  Col- 
lingwood.  Sir  John  Danvers  then  carried  the 
manuscript  to  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  who  ex- 
claimed, as  he  threw  his  arms  about  his  neck, 
"  God  bless  you,  Danvers !  I  shall  keep  this  with 
my  title-deeds  at  Tichfield ;  it  is  the  evidence  of 
my  honour,  and  I  prize  it  more  than  the  evidence 
of  my  lands."  About  four  months  afterward 
Southampton  died.  Forty-three  years  History  of  a 
afterward,  in  1667,  his  son  and  successor  manuscnPt- 
passed  away,  and  then  this  precious  manuscript 
was  bought  from  the  executors  by  William  Byrd, 
of  Virginia,  father  of  the  famous  historian  and 
antiquary.  From  the  Byrd  library  it  passed  into 
the  hands  of  William  Stith,  president  of  William 
and  Mary  College,  who  used  it  in  writing  his  His- 
tory of  Virginia,  published  at  Williamsburg  in 
1747,  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  American  his- 
torical works.  From  Stith's  hands  the  manu- 
script passed  to  his  kinsman,  Peyton  Randolph, 
president  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  after 
his  death  in  1775,  Thomas  Jefferson  bought  it. 
In  1814  ex-president  Jefferson  sold  his  library 
to  the  United  States,  and  this  manuscript  is  now 


222     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

in  the  Library  of  Congress,  741  folio  pages  bound 
in  two  volumes.  As  for  the  original  documents, 
they  are  nowhere  to  be  found  among  British 
records ;  and  when  we  recollect  how  welcome  their 
destruction  must  have  been  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith, 
to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  to  James  L,  we  can- 
not help  feeling  that  the  chest  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil was  not  altogether  a  safe  place  in  which  to 
keep  them. 

It  is  to  the  copy  preserved  through  the  careful 
forethought  of  Nicholas  Ferrar  that  we  owe  our 
knowledge  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters 
in  early  American  history.  In  the  development 
of  Virginia  the  overthrow  of  the  great  London 
Company  was  an  event  of  cardinal  importance. 
For  the  moment  it  was  quite  naturally  bewailed  in 
Virginia  as  a  direful  calamity;  but,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  it  turned  out  to  be  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  Stuart  despotism  gained  not  one  of  its 
ends,  except  the  momentary  gratification  of  spleen, 
and  self-government  in  Virginia,  which  seemed  in 
peril,  went  on  to  take  root  more  deeply  and 
strongly  than  before. 


CHAPTER  VH. 

THE   KINGDOM   OF  VIRGINIA. 

FROM  the  busy  streets  of  London,  from  the 
strife  in  Parliament  and  the  Privy  Council,  we 
must  turn  once  more  to  the  American  wilderness 
and  observe  what  progress  had  been  made  in  Vir- 
ginia during  the  seventeen  years  of  its 

,  ,     .    .     *  ,  Retrospect. 

government  by  a  great  joint-stock  com- 
pany. But  for  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  sit- 
uation we  must  qualify  and  limit  this  period  of 
seventeen  years.  The  terrible  experience  of  the 
first  three  years  left  the  colony  at  the  point  of 
death,  and  it  was  not  until  the  administration  of 
Sir  Thomas  Dale  that  any  considerable  expansion 
beyond  Jamestown  began.  The  progress  visible 
in  1624  was  mostly  an  affair  of  ten  years'  duration, 
dating  from  the  abolition  of  communism  and  the 
beginnings  of  tobacco  culture.  By  far  the  greater 
part  of  this  progress  had  been  achieved  within  the 
last  five  years,  since  the  establishment  of  self-gov- 
ernment and  the  greater  part  played  by  family 
life.  In  1624  the  colony  of  Virginia  extended 
from  the  mouth  of  James  River  up  nearly  as  far 
as  the  site  of  Richmond,  with  plantations  on  both 
banks ;  and  it  spread  over  the  peninsula  between 
the  James  and  the  broad  stream  next  to  the  north 
of  it,  which  at  that  time  was  called  the  Charles, 


224     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

but  since  1642  has  been  known  as  the  York  River. 
There  were  also  a  few  settlements  on  the  Accomac 
peninsula  east  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  It  would  be 
hard  to  find  elsewhere  upon  the  North  American 
coast  any  region  where  the  land  is  so  generally 
and  easily  penetrable  by  streams  that  can  be 
navigated.  The  country  known  as  "  tidewater 
Virginia "  is  a  kind  of  sylvan  Venice. 

Tidewater  3  » 

Virginia.  Into  the  depths  of  the  shaggy  woodland 
for  many  miles  on  either  side  the  great  bay  the 
salt  tide  ebbs  and  flows.  One  can  go  surprisingly 
far  inland  on  sea-faring  craft,  while  with  a  boat 
there  are  but  few  plantations  on  the  old  York 
peninsula  to  which  one  cannot  approach  very 
near.  In  the  absence  of  good  roads  this  ubiquity 
of  navigable  water  was  a  great  convenience,  but 
doubtless  the  very  convenience  of  it  may  have 
delayed  the  arduous  work  of  breaking*  good  land- 
routes  through  the  wilderness,  and  thus  have 
tended  to  maintain  the  partial  isolation  of  the 
planters'  estates,  to  which  so  many  characteristic 
features  of  life  in  Old  Virginia  may  be  traced. 

If  in  1624  we  had  gone  up  stream  to  Wero- 
wocomoco,  where  Smith  had  broken  the  ice  with 
his  barge  fifteen  years  before,  we  should  prob- 
ably have  found  very  little  of  its  strange  bar- 
baric life  remaining.  The  first  backward  step  of 
the  Indian  before  the  encroaching  progress  of 
Englishmen  had  been  taken.  The  frontier  was 
Receding  fas*  receding  to  the  Pamunkey  region 
along  the  line  joining  the  site  of  West 
Point  with  that  of  Cold  Harbor ;  and  from  that 
time  forward  a  perpetually  receding  frontier  of 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  225 

barbarism  was  to  be  one  of  the  most  profoundly 
and  variously  significant  factors  in  the  life  of 
English-speaking  America  until  the  census  of  1890 
should  announce  that  such  a  frontier  could  no 
longer  be  definitely  located.  In  the  last  year  of 
James  I.  the  grim  Opekankano  and  his  warriors 
still  held  the  Pamunkey  River;  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood and  to  the  north  of  it  one  might  have 
seen  symptoms  of  the  wild  frontier  life  of  the 
white  hunter  and  trapper.  Returning  thence  to 
the  great  bay,  the  plantation  called  Dale's  Gift  on 
the  Accomac  shore  would  have  little  about  it  that 
need  detain  us,  and  so  sweeping  across  from  Cape 
Charles  to  Point  Comfort,  we  should  come  to 
Elizabeth  City,  named  for  King  James's  daughter 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Bohemia.  The  only  planta- 
tion here,  standing  like  a  sentinel  to  guard  the 
principal  avenue  into  the  colony,  bears  the  name 
of  the  last  treasurer  of  the  Company,  curtailed  into 
Hampton.  The  next  borough  bears  the  ^g 
name  of  Southampton's  enemy,  the  Earl  Plantations- 
of  Warwick,  and  opposite  are  the  plantations  on 
Warrasqueak  Bay.  Passing  Jamestown,  we  arrive 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Chickahominy,  above  which 
lies  an  extensive  territory  known  as  Charles  City, 
with  the  plantations  of  Wyanoke  and  Westover, 
while  over  on  the  south  side  of  the  James  the  set- 
tlements known  as  Martin  Brandon,  Flowerdieu 
Hundred,  and  Bermuda  successively  come  into 
sight  and  disappear.  Then  we  sail  around  the 
City  of  Henricus,  and  passing  the  ruins  of  Falling 
Creek,  destroyed  by  the  Indians,  we  come  at 
length  to  the  charming  place  that  Smith  called 


226     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Nonesuch.  Here,  a  few  miles  below  the  spot 
where  Richmond  is  in  future  to  stand,  we  reach 
once  more  the  frontier.  Beyond  are  endless 
stretches  of  tangled  and  mysterious  woods  through 
which  the  sturdy  Newport  once  vainly  tried  to  find 
his  way  to  some  stream  flowing  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Here  we  may  turn  our  prow  and  make 
our  way  down  to  Jamestown,  where  the  House  of 
Burgesses  is  in  session. 

It  is  called  a  House  of  Burgesses  because  its 
members  are   regarded  as  the  representatives  of 

boroughs,  and  such  a  name  sounds  queer 
and°us  as  applied  to  little  areas  of  scattered 

farms  in  the  forest.  Still  more  strange  is 
the  epithet  "  city  "  for  tracts  of  woodland  several 
miles  in  extent,  and  containing  half  a  dozen  widely 
isolated  plantations.  The  apparent  absurdity  is 
emphasized  on  the  modern  map,  where  such  names 
as  Charles  City  and  James  City  are  simply  names 
of  counties.  How  came  such  names  first  to  be 
used  in  such  senses  ?  One's  mind  naturally  reverts 
to  what  goes  on  to-day  in  the  Far  West,  where 
geographical  names,  like  doubtful  promissory 
notes,  must  usually  be  taken  with  heavy  discount 
for  an  uncertain  future,  where  in  every  such  appel- 
lation there  lurks  the  hope  of  a  boom,  and  any 
collection  of  three  or  four  log-cabins,  with  a  saw- 
mill and  whiskey-shop,  surrounded  by  a  dozen 
acres  of  blackened  tree-stumps,  may  forthwith 
appear  in  the  Postal  Guide  under  some  such  title 
as  Chain  Lightning  City.  In  oldest  Virginia  we 
may  perhaps  see  marks  of  such  a  spirit  of  buoyant 
confidence  in  such  names  as  Charles  City  or  the 


THE  KINGDOM  OF   VIRGINIA.  227 

City  of  Henricus.  No  doubt  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
when  he  fortified  the  little  Dutch  Gap  peninsula 
and  marked  out  its  streets,  believed  himself  to 
be  founding  a  true  city  with  urban  destinies  await- 
ing it.  This  explanation,  however,  does  not  cover 
the  whole  case.  Whatever  the  title  of  each  indi- 
vidual settlement  in  oldest  Virginia,  —  whether 
plantation,  or  hundred,  or  city,  —  all  were  alike 
conceived,  for  legal  and  political  purposes,  as 
equivalent  to  boroughs,  although  they  were  not 
thus  designated.  Now  the  primary  meaning  of 
the  word  "borough"  is  "fortress,"  and  in  early 
English  usage  a  borough  was  a  small  and  thickly 
peopled  hundred  surrounded  by  a  durable  wall. 
A  "  hundred "  was  a  small  aggregation 
of  townships  united  by  a  common  re-  and 
sponsibility  for  the  good  behaviour  of 
its  people  ;  it  was  therefore  the  smallest  area  for 
the  administration  of  justice,  the  smallest  social 
community  which  possessed  a  court.  Ordinarily 
the  hundred  was  a  rural  community,  but  that 
special  compact  and  fortified  form  of  it  known 
as  the  borough  retained  all  the  legal  features 
of  the  ordinary  hundred ;  it  had  its  own  court, 
and  was  responsible  for  its  own  malefactors  and 
vagrants.  In  old  English  boroughs  the  respon- 
sible men  —  those  who  owned  property,  and  paid 
taxes,  and  chose  representatives  —  were  the  bur- 
gesses. Bearing  always  in  mind  this  equivalence 
between  the  borough  and  the  hundred,  we  may 
note  further  that  in  early  times  the  hundred  was 
a  unit  for  military  purposes ;  it  was  about  such  a 
community  as  could  furnish  to  the  general  levy  a 


228     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

company  of  a  hundred  armed  men.  It  was  also  a 
unit  of  representation  in  the  ancient  English  shire- 
moot  or  county  court.  Now  in  oldest  Virginia 
the  colonial  assembly,  when  instituted  in  1619,  the 
earliest  legislature  of  civilized  men  in  the  western 
hemisphere,  was  patterned  after  the  old  English 
county  court,  and  it  was  natural  that  its  units 
should  be  conceived  as  hundreds  and  in  some  in- 
stances called  so.  Moreover,  there  are  indica- 
tions that  at  times  the  hundred  was  regarded  as  a 
military  division,  and  also  as  the  smallest  area  for 
the  administration  of  justice,  as  in  the  law  passed 
in  1624  providing  that  Charles  City  and  Eliza- 
beth City  should  hold  monthly  courts.1  What- 
ever names  the  early  settlers  of  Virginia  gave  to 
their  settlements  individually,  they  seem  to  have 
regarded  them  all  in  the  legal  light  of  hundreds, 
and  as  they  were  familiar  with  the  practical  equiva- 
lence of  the  borough  as  a  unit  for  judicial  and 
representative  purposes,  it  was  natural  that  when 
they  came  to  choose  a  general  assembly  they 
should  speak  of  its  members  as  if  they  were  repre- 
sentatives of  boroughs.  They  were  familiar  with 
burgesses  in  England,  but  the  designations  "  hun- 
dred-men" and  "  hundred  -  elders  "  had  become 
obsolete. 

Resuming  our  pilgrimage  through  the  Virginia 
of  1624,  we  find  no  walls  of  massive  masonry  with 
frowning  turrets  encompassing  these  rudimentary 
boroughs,  but  at  the  most  exposed  points  we  meet 
with  stout  wooden  blockhouses  and  here  and  there 

1  Ingle,   "  Local  Institutions  of  Virginia,"  J.  H.  U.  Studies, 
iii.  148. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  229 

a  row  of  palisades.  At  some  places  there  are 
wharves  for  the  convenient  shipping  of  tobacco,  but 
now  and  then,  if  the  tide  is  not  just  right,  we  may 
be  in  danger  of  wetting  our  feet  in  going  ashore, 
about  which  that  ill-disposed  Captain  Butler  has 
lately  made  so  much  fuss.  The  wooden  frame 
houses,  having  been  built  without  regard 
to  aesthetic  effects,  with  beams  here  and 
there  roughly  hewn  and  boards  not  always  smoothly 
planed,  are  not  so  attractive  in  outward  appear- 
ance as  they  might  be,  but  they  are  roomy  and 
well-aired,  and  the  settlers  already  point  to  them 
with  some  degree  of  pride  as  more  comfortable 
than  the  houses  of  labouring  men  in  England. 
These  houses  usually  stand  at  wide  intervals,  and 
nowhere,  perhaps,  except  at  Henricus  and  James- 
town, would  one  see  them  clustering  in  a  village 
with  streets.  Here  and  there  one  might  come  across 
a  handsomer  and  more  finished  mansion,  like  an 
English  manor  house,  with  cabins  for  servants 
and  farm  buildings  at  some  distance.  Of  negroes 
scarcely  any  are  to  be  seen,  only  twenty-two  all 
told,  in  this  population  of  perhaps  4,000  souls. 
Cheap  labour  is  supplied  by  white  ser- 
vants, bound  to  their  masters  by  inden- 
tures for  some  such  term  as  six  or  seven  years ; 
they  are  to  some  extent  a  shiftless  and  degraded 
set  of  creatures  gathered  from  the  slums  and  jails 
of  English  seaport  towns,  but  many  of  them  are 
of  a  better  sort.  Of  red  men,  since  the 

....  Indians. 

dreadful  massacre  ot  two  years  ago,  one 

sees  but  few ;  they  have  been  driven  off  to  the 

frontier,  the  alliance  cemented  by  the  marriage  of 


230     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Pocahontas  is  at  an  end,  and  no  more  can  white 
men  be  called  Powhatans.  On  this  point  the 
statute  book  speaks  in  no  uncertain  tones :  "  Ffor 
the  Indians  we  hould  them  our  irrecosileable  eni- 
mies,"  and  it  is  thought  fit  that  if  any  of  them  be 
found  molesting  cattle  or  lurking  about  any  plan- 
tation, "  then  the  commander  shall  have  power  by 
virtue  of  this  act  to  rayse  a  sufficient  partie  and 
fall  out  uppon  them,  and  persecute  them  as  he 
shall  finde  occasion."  1 

In  the  plantations,  thus  freed  from  the  presence 
of  Indians,  European  domestic  animals  have  be- 
come plenty.  Horses,  indeed,  are  not  yet  so  much 
in  demand  as  boats  and  canoes,  but  oxen  draw  the 
Agriculture,  pl°ug^5  the  cows  are  milked  night  and 
morning,  sheep  and  goats  browse  here 
and  there,  pigs  and  chickens  are  innumerable. 
Pigeons  coo  from  the  eves,  and  occasionally  one 
comes  upon  a  row  of  murmurous  bee-hives.  The 
broad  clearings  are  mostly  covered  with  the  cab- 
bage-like tobacco  plant,  but  there  are  also  many 
fields  of  waving  wheat  and  barley,  and  many 
more  of  the  tasselled  Indian  corn.  John  Smith's 
scheme  for  manufacturing  glass  and  soap  has 
not  yet  been  abandoned ;  the  few  workmen  from 
Poland,  brought  here  by  him,  have  remained,  or 
else  others  have  come  in  place  of  them,  for  we 
find  the  House  of  Burgesses  passing  a  statute  ad- 
mitting them  to  the  franchise  and  other  privileges 
of  English  citizenship,  because  of  their  value  to 
the  commonwealth  in  these  branches  of  indus- 
try. Skilled  workmen  of  another  sort  have  been 

1  Hening'a  Statutes  at  Large,  i.  176,  193. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  231 

sent  over  by  Nicholas  Ferrar  from  France,  for 
since  mulberries  grow  in  Virginia  it  has  been 
thought  that  silk-worms  might  be  profitably  raised 
here,  but  such  hopes  are  not  destined  to  be  real- 
ized. 

Such  was  the  outward  aspect  of  things  along  the 
banks  of  the  James  River  in  the  year  when,  amid 
general  grief  and  forebodings,  the  London  Com- 
pany was  dissolved ;  and  such  it  continued  to  be 
for  many  a  year  to  come,  save  that  the  cultivated 
area  increased  in  extent  and  the  settlers  in  num- 
ber, and  that  in  spite  of  divers  efforts  to  check  it, 

the  raising  of  tobacco  encroached  more 

•  Tobacco> 

and  more  upon  all  other  rorms  of  indus- 
try, tending  to  crush  them  out  of  existence,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  plantations  grew  larger  and 
the  demand  for  cheap  labour  was  vastly  increased. 
For  some  time  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn 
assumed  considerable  proportions,  so  that  not  only 
was  there  enough  for  home  consumption,  but  in 
1634  more  than  ten  thousand  bushels  were  ex- 
ported to  Winthrop's  new  colony  on  Massachusetts 
Bay.  Nevertheless  the  encroachments  of  tobacco 
went  on  without  cessation,  until  the  features  of 
social  life  in  old  Virginia  came  to  be  those  of  a 
wealthy  and  powerful  community  economically 
based  upon  one  single  form  of  agricultural  indus- 
try. 

In  the  Virginia  of  1624  one  could  not  look  for 
any  highly  developed  forms  of  social  recreation,  or 
for  means  of  education  or  literary  attainment. 
Various  episodes  of  farm  work,  such  as  the  har- 
vesting of  the  crops,  or  now  and  then  the  raising 


232     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

of  the  frame  of  a  house  or  barn,  seem  to  have 
been  occasions  for  a  gathering  of  neighbours  with 
some  sort  of  merrymaking,  very  much  as  in  other 
primitive  rural  communities.  Among  the  leading 
colonists  were  men  of  university  education  who 
brought  with  them  literary  tastes,  and  in  their 
houses  might  have  been  found  ponderous  tomes  of 
controversial  theology,  as  well  as  those  little  thin 
quarto  tracts  of  political  discussion  that  nowa- 
days often  fetch  such  fabulous  prices. 

Literature.       /-*  •        T   i         o-i  t  •          i  « 

Captain  John  omith  was  spending  his 
last  years  quietly  in  England,  making  maps  and 
writing  or  editing  books.  His  "  General  History 
of  Virginia,"  published  in  1624,  can  hardly  fail  to 
have  been  read  with  interest  in  the  colony ;  and 
the  same  ship  that  brought  it  may  well  have 
brought  the  first  folio  edition  of  Shakespeare's 
complete  works,  which  came  from  the  press  in  the 
preceding  year.  Literary  production  of  a  certain 
sort  went  on  in  the  colony.  Such  tracts  as  Ralph 
Hamor's  "  True  Discourse  "  and  Whitaker's 
"  Good  News  from  Virginia,"  though  books  of 
rare  interest  and  value,  will  perhaps  hardly  come 
under  the  category  of  pure  literature.  But  the 
translation  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  by  George 
Sandys,  youngest  brother  of  Sir  Edwin,  has  been 
well  known  and  admired  by  scholars  from  that 
time  to  our  own.  George  Sandys  came  to  Vir- 
ginia in  1621  as  treasurer  of  the  colony,  fortified 
with  some  rather  dull  verses  from  the  poet  lau- 
reate, Michael  Drayton :  — 

"  And  worthy  George,  by  industry  and  use 
Let 's  see  what  lines  Virginia  will  produce ; 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.          233 

Entice  the  Muses  thither  to  repair, 

Entreat  them  gently,  train  them  to  that  air ; 

For  they  from  hence  may  thither  hap  to  fly." 

On  the  bank  of  James  River  the  worthy  George 
entreated  the  Muses  with  success  and  wrote  the 
greater  part  of  his  poetical  version,  which  was 
published  at  London  in  1626. 

But  the  Muses  could  not  be  enticed  to  stay  long 
in  Virginia  without  some  provision  for  higher 
education  there,  and  this  was  well  under- 

'.          on  it         Education. 

stood  by  oir  Edwin  oandys  and  the 
enlightened  gentlemen  who  supported  him.  In 
1621  the  Company  resolved  that  funds  should  be 
appropriated  "  for  the  erecting  of  a  public  free 
school  .  .  .  for  the  education  of  children  and 
grounding  of  them  in  the  principles  of  religion. 
Civility  of  life  and  humane  learning,"  said  the 
committee's  report,  "  seemed  to  carry  with  it  the 
greatest  weight  and  highest  consequence  unto  the 
plantations  as  that  whereof  both  Church  and  Com- 
monwealth take  their  original  foundation  and 
happy  estate,  this  being  also  like[ly]  to  prove  a 
work  most  acceptable  unto  the  planters,  through 
want  whereof  they  have  been  hitherto  constrained 
to  their  great  costs  to  send  their  children  from 
thence  hither  to  be  taught."  Rev.  Patrick  Cope- 
land,  a  missionary  returning  from  the  East  Indies, 
raised  X70  toward  the  endowment  of  this  school, 
and  was  busily  engaged  in  doing  more  for  it.  It 
was  accordingly  called  the  East  India  School,  it 
was  to  be  established  in  Charles  City,  pmjectfora 
and  its  courses  of  study  were  to  be  pre-  university- 
paratory  to  those  of  a  university  which  was  to  be 


234     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

set  up  in  the  city  of  Henricus.  Great  interest 
was  felt  in  this  university.  Like  Harvard  Col- 
lege, founded  somewhat  later,  it  was  designed  not 
only  for  the  education  of  white  youths  but  also  for 
civilizing  and  missionary  work  among  the  Indians. 
The  Bishop  of  London  raised  by  subscription 
,£1,000  for  the  enterprise ;  one  anonymous  bene- 
factor gave  a  silver  communion  service ;  another, 
who  signed  himself  "  Dust  and  Ashes,"  sent  X550, 
and  promised,  after  certain  progress  should  have 
been  made,  to  add  £450  more  ;  this  man  was  after- 
ward discovered  to  be  a  member  of  the  Company, 
named  Gabriel  Barber.  The  elder  Nicholas  Ferrar 
left  £300  in  his  will,  and  various  contributions 
were  added  by  his  sons.  A  tract  of  land  in 
Henricus  was  appropriated  for  the  site  of  the  col- 
lege, and  George  Thorpe  was  sent  out  to  be  its 
rector,  or,  as  we  should  say,  its  president.  But 
Thorpe,  as  well  as  others  who  were  interested  in 
the  enterprise,  perished  in  the  Indian  massacre  of 
1622.  It  seems  that  Copeland  was  about  to  be 
sent  to  take  his  place,  and  the  enterprise  was 
about  to  be  vigorously  pushed  on  by  Ferrar  and 
his  friends,  when  the  overthrow  of  the  Company 
took  away  all  control  over  Virginian  affairs  from 
the  people  most  interested  in  this  work.  So  the 
scheme  for  a  college  remained  in  a  state  of  sus- 
pended vitality  for  seventy  years,  until  Dr.  Blair 
revived  it  in  1692,  and  established  it  in  the  town 
of  Williamsburg. 

Everybody  knows  that  the  college  of  William 
and  Mary  is  the  oldest  in  the  United  States,  after 
Harvard.  It  is  not  so  generally  known  that  the 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.          235 

former  was  planned  and  all  but  established  in 
1622,  eight  years  before  Winthrop  and  his  follow- 
ers came  to  Massachusetts  Bay.  It  is  a  just  and 
wholesome  pride  that  New  England  people  feel  in 
recalling  the  circumstances  under  which  Harvard 
College  was  founded,  in  a  little  colony 

Puritans  and 

but  six  years  of  age,  still  struggling  Liberal 
against  the  perils  of  the  wilderness  and 
the  enmity  of  its  sovereign.  Such  an  event  is  quite 
properly  cited  in  illustration  of  the  lofty  aims 
and  intelligent  foresight  of  the  founders  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
aims  equally  lofty  and  foresight  equally  intelligent 
were  shown  by  the  men  who  from  1619  to  1624 
controlled  the  affairs  of  Virginia.  One  of  the 
noblest  features  in  the  great  Puritan  movement 
was  its  zeal  for  education,  elementary  education 
for  everybody  and  higher  education  for  all  who 
could  avail  themselves  of  it.  It  is  important  to 
remember  that  this  zeal  for  education,  as  well  as 
the  zeal  for  political  liberty,  was  not  confined  to 
the  Puritans.  Within  the  established  Church  of 
England  and  never  feeling  a  desire  to  leave  it, 
were  eminent  men  who  to  the  political  principles 
of  Pym  joined  a  faith  in  education  as  strong  as 
Locke's.  The  general  temper  of  these  men,  of 
whom  Richard  Hooker  was  the  illustrious  master, 
was  broadly  tolerant.  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  was 
friendly  to  the  Leyden  Pilgrims,  and  it  was  under 
his  administration  that  the  Virginia  Company 
granted  them  the  patent  under  which  they  would 
have  founded  their  colony  on  the  coast  of  New 
Jersey  or  Delaware,  had  not  foul  weather  driven 


236     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  Mayflower  to  Cape  Cod.  It  was  Sandys  and 
Nicholas  Ferrar  that  were  most  energetic  in  the 
attempt  to  found  a  college  in  Virginia,  and  there 
were  some  curious  points  of  resemblance  between 
their  situation  in  1622  and  the  situation  of  Win- 
throp  and  his  friends  while  they  were  laying  the 
foundations  of  Harvard  College.  In  1622,  while 
James  I.  was  plotting  the  overthrow  of  the  Lon- 
don Company,  the  horrors  of  Indian  massacre,  as 
sudden  as  lightning  from  a  cloudless  sky,  fell  upon 
the  people  of  Virginia.  In  1637  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  had  the  Pequot  war  on  their  hands, 
and  Charles  I.  was  plotting  the  overthrow  of  the 
Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  against  whose 
charter  he  was  on  the  point  of  issuing  a  writ  of 
quo  warranto,  when  in  St.  Giles's  church  at  Edin- 
burgh one  Sunday  old  Jenny  Geddes  threw  her 
camp-stool  at  the  bishop's  head,  and  in  the  ensu- 
ing turmoil  American  affairs  were  quite  forgotten. 
The  comparison  reminds  us  that  tho  Company 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  knew  how  to  profit  by  the 
fate  of  its  great  predecessor,  the  London  Company 
for  Virginia.  In  the  summer  of  1629, 

Massachu-  , 

setts  and       when  things  were  looking:  very  dark  in 

Virginia.  °  °  J 

England,  the  leaders  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Company  held  a  meeting  at  Cambridge 
and  decided  to  carry  their  company,  with  its  char- 
ter, across  the  ocean  to  New  England,  where  they 
might  work  out  their  purposes  without  so  much 
danger  from  royal  interference.  This  transfer  of 
the  Company  to  America  was  the  most  funda- 
mental circumstance  in  the  early  history  of  New 
England.  The  mere  physical  fact  of  distance 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.          237 

transformed  the  commercial  company  into  a  self- 
governing  republic,  which  for  more  than  fifty 
years  managed  its  own  affairs  in  almost  entire 
independence  of  the  British  government.  Diffi- 
culty of  access  and  infrequency  of  communication 
were  the  safeguards  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company.  If  it  had  held  its  meetings  and  pro* 
mulgated  its  measures  in  London,  its  life  would 
not  have  been  worth  a  five  years  purchase.  It  had 
the  fate  of  the  Virginia  Company  for  a  warning, 
and  most  adroitly  did  it  profit  by  the  lesson.  If 
the  Virginia  Company  could  have  been  transferred 
bodily  to  America  in  1620,  it  might  perhaps  have 
become  similarly  changed  into  a  self-governing 
semi-independent  republic ;  the  interests  of  the 
Company  would  have  been  permanently  identified 
with  those  of  the  colony,  and  the  course  of  Virgin- 
ian history  might  have  been  profoundly  affected. 
As  it  was,  Virginia  attained  through  the  fall  of 
the  Company  to  such  measure  of  self-government 
as  it  had  throughout  the  colonial  period,  a  self- 
government  much  like  that  of  Massachusetts  after 
1692,  but  far  less  complete  than  that  of  Massa- 
chusetts before  1684. 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  James  I.  that  the 
overthrow  of  the  Company  should  contribute  in 
any  way  to  increase  the  liberties  of  the  colony  of 
Virginia.  All  colonizable  territory  claimed  by 
Great  Britain  was,  in  his  opinion,  just  so  much 
royal  domain,  something  which  came  to  him  by 
inheritance  like  the  barony  of  Renfrew  or  the 
manor  of  Windsor ;  it  was  his  to  do  what  he  liked 
with  it,  and  for  settlers  in  such  territory  no  better 


238     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

law  was  needed  than  such  as  he  could  make  for 
Death  of  them  himself .  A  shadow  of  doubt  as  to 
fames  i.  j^g  own  omniscience  was  never  one  of 

James's  weaknesses,  and  no  sooner  had  the  Com- 
pany's charter  been  annulled  than  he  set  himself 
to  work  to  draw  up  a  constitution  for  Virginia.  It 
was  work  of  a  sort  that  he  thoroughly  enjoyed,  but 
what  might  have  come  of  it  will  never  be  known, 
for  while  he  was  busy  with  it  there  came  upon 
him  what  the  doctors  called  a  tertian  ague,  which 
carried  him  off  in  March,  1625. 

In  the  history  of  England  no  era  is  marked  by 
the  accession  of  Charles  I.  In  its  policy  and 
methods,  and  in  the  political  problems  at  issue, 
his  reign  was  merely  the  continuation  of  his 
father's.  But  in  the  history  of  Virginia  his  acces- 
sion marks  an  important  era.  For  if  James  had 
lived  to  complete  his  constitution  for  Virginia  he 
would  in  all  probability  have  swept  away  the  repre- 
sentative government  introduced  by  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys;  but  Charles  allowed  it  to  stand.  As 
the  situation  was  left  by  the  death  of  James,  so 
it  remained  without  essential  change  until  1776. 
The  House  of  Burgesses  was  undisturbed,  but  the 
governor  and  council  were  thenceforth  appointed 
Effect  of  the  by  the  crown.  The  colony  was  thus  left 
th7coam-°f  less  independent  than  it  would  have  been 
if  the  Company,  with  its  power  of  elect- 
ing its  own  executive  officers,  could  have  been 
transferred  bodily  to  Virginia  ;  but  it  was  left 
more  independent  than  it  would  have  been  if  the 
existence  of  the  Company  had  been  continued  in 
London.  The  change  from  governors  appointed 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  239 

by  the  Company  to  governors  appointed  by  the 
crown  was  a  relaxation  of  the  supervision  which 
England  exercised  over  Virginia.  For  the  Com- 
pany could  devote  all  its  attention  to  the  affairs  of 
the  colony,  but  the  crown  could  not.  Especially 
in  such  reigns  as  those  of  the  two  Charleses,  the 
attention  of  the  crown  was  too  much  absorbed 
with  affairs  in  Great  Britain  to  allow  it  to  inter- 
fere decisively  with  the  course  of  events  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  colony  was  thus  in  the  main  thrown 
back  upon  its  own  resources,  and  such  a  state 
of  things  was  most  favourable  to  its  wholesome 
development.  The  Company,  after  all,  was  a 
commercial  corporation,  and  the  main  object  of  its 
existence  was  to  earn  money  for  its  shareholders. 
The  pursuit  of  that  object  was  by  no  means  always 
sure  to  coincide  with  the  best  interests  of  the 
colony.  Moreover,  although  the  government  of 
the  Company  from  1619  to  1624  was  conducted 
with  energy  and  sagacity,  disinterestedness,  hon- 
esty, and  breadth  of  view  such  as  history  has  sel- 
dom seen  rivalled,  yet  there  was  no  likelihood  that 
such  would  always^  be  the  case.  Such  a  com- 
bination of  men  in  responsible  positions  as  South- 
ampton and  Sandys  and  Ferrar  is  too  rare  to  be 
counted  upon.  The  Company  might  have  passed 
for  a  weary  while  under  the  control  of  incom- 
petent or  unscrupulous  men,  and  to  a  young 
colony  like  Virginia  such  a  contingency  would 
have  been  not  only  disagreeable  but  positively 
dangerous.  No  community,  indeed,  can  long 
afford  to  have  its  affairs  administered  by  a  body 
of  men  so  far  away  as  to  be  out  of  immediate 


240     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

touch  with  it.  On  the  other  hand,  even  if  we 
could  suppose  a  commercial  company  to  go  on 
year  after  year  managing  a  colony  with  so  much 
intelligence  and  sympathy  as  the  London  Com- 
pany showed  in  its  last  days,  such  a  situation 
would  not  be  permanently  wholesome  for  the  col- 
ony. What  men  need  is  not  fostering  or  coddling, 
but  the  chance  to  give  free  play  to  their  individual 
capacities.  If  coddling  and  fostering  could  make 
a  colony  thrive,  the  French  in  Canada  ought  to 
have  dominated  North  America.  From  all  points 
of  view,  therefore,  it  seems  to  have  been  well  for 
Virginia  that  the  Company  fell  when  it  did.  It 
established  self-government  there,  set  its  machin- 
ery successfully  to  work,  and  then  vanished  from 
the  scene,  like  the  Jinni  in  some  Oriental  tale, 
leaving  its  good  gift  behind. 

The  boon  of  self-government  was  so  congenial 
to  the  temper  of  the  Virginians  that  they  would 
doubtless  have  contrived  somehow  to  .obtain  it 
sooner  or  later.  Hutchinson  tells  us  that  when 
the  second  American  house  of  representatives  was 
instituted,  namely,  that  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
1634,  the  people  were  well  aware  that  no  provi- 
sion for  anything  of  the  sort  had  been  made  in 
The  virus  of  their  charter,  but  they  assumed  that  the 
liberty.  right  to  such  representation  was  implied 
by  that  clause  of  the  charter  which  reserved  to 
them  the  natural  rights  of  Englishmen  ; l  and  else- 
where the  same  eminent  historian  quaintly  speaks 
of  a  House  of  Burgesses  as  having  broken  out  in 
Virginia  in  1619,  as  if  there  were  an  incurable 

1  Ilutchinson,  Hist.  Mass.  Bay,  i.  37. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  241 

virus  of  liberty  in  the  English  blood,  as  if  it  were 
something  that  must  come  out  as  inevitably  as 
original  sin.  But  if  James  I.  had  lived  longer,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  he  would  undoubtedly  have 
made  an  effort  to  repress  this  active  spirit  of  lib- 
erty. The  colonists,  on  hearing  of  the  downfall  of 
the  Company,  were  in  great  alarm  lest  they  should 
lose  their  House  of  Burgesses,  and  have  some 
arbitrary  governor  appointed  to  rule  over  them, 
perhaps  the  hated  Argall  himself,  whom  we  have 
seen  King  James  selecting  as  one  of  a  board  of 
commissioners  to  investigate  affairs  in  Virginia. 
In  1621,  when  for  some  reason  or  other  the  amia- 
ble and  popular  Yeardley  had  asked  to  be  relieved 
of  the  duties  of  governor,  Argall  had  tried  to  get 
himself  appointed  in  his  place,  but  the  Company 
had  chosen  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  who  held  the  office 
until  1626,  while  Yeardley  remained  in  Virginia 
as  a  member  of  the  council.  In  1625,  as  soon  as 
the  assembly  heard  of  King  James's  death,  they 
sent  Yeardley  to  England  to  pay  their  respects  to 
King  Charles  and  to  assure  him  that  the  people 
of  Virginia  were  thoroughly  satisfied  with  their 
government  and  hoped  that  no  changes  would 
be  made  in  it. 

Now  it  happened  that  Charles  had  a  favour  to 
ask  of  the  settlers  in  Virginia,  and  was  in  the 
right  sort  of  mood  for  a  bargain.  He  was  no 
more  in  love  than  his  father  with  the  many- 
tongued  beast  called  Parliament,  he  saw  how  com-, 
fortably  his  brother-in-law  of  France  was  getting 
along  without  such  assistance,  and  he  was  deter- 
mined if  possible  to  do  likewise.  But  to  get  along 


242     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

without  parliaments  a  poor  king  must  have  some 
means  of  getting  money.     The  Virginia 

Charles  I.  e 

and  the  to-     tobacco  crop  was  fast  becoming:  a  great 

bacco  trade.  o  i 

source  of  wealth ;  why  should  not  the 
king  himself  go  into  the  tobacco  trade  ?  If  all 
tobacco  brought  to  England  from  Virginia  could 
be  consigned  to  him,  then  he  could  retail  it  to 
consumers  at  his  own  price  and  realize  a  gigantic 
profit;  or,  what  was  perhaps  still  better,  having 
obtained  this  monopoly,  he  could  farm  it  out  to 
various  agents  who  would  be  glad  to  pay  roundly 
for  the  privilege.  Now  the  only  way  in  which  he 
could  treat  with  the  people  of  Virginia  on  such 
matters  was  through  the  representatives  of  the 
people.  Accordingly,  when  Governor  Wyatt  in 
1626  had  occasion  to  return  to  England,  the  king 
sent  back  Sir  George  Yeardley  as  royal  governor, 
which  under  the  circumstances  was  a  most  em- 
phatic assurance  that  the  wishes  of  the  settlers 
should  be  granted.  Furthermore,  in  a  message  to 
their  representatives  Charles  graciously  addressed 
them  as  "  Our  trusty  and  well-beloved  Burgesses 
of  the  Grand  Assembly  of  Virginia,"  and  thus 
officially  recognized  that  house  as  a  coordinate 
branch  of  the  colonial  government.  Some  arrange- 
ments made  with  regard  to  the  tobacco  trade 
were  calculated  to  please  the  colonists.  James  I., 
under  the  influence  of  his  mentor,  Count  Gondo- 
mar,  had  browbeaten  the  Company  into  an  ar- 
rangement by  which  they  consented  to  import 
into  England  not  more  than  60,000  or  less  than 
40,000  pounds  of  tobacco  yearly  from  the  Spanish 
colonies.  Charles  I.  on  the  other  hand  prohibited 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  243 

the  importation  of  Spanish  tobacco,  so  that  Vir- 
ginia and  the  Bermudas  had  a  monopoly  of  the 
market.  In  spite  of  this  friendly  attitude  of  the 
king  toward  the  colonists,  he  never  succeeded 
in  becoming  the  sole  purchaser  of  their  tobacco 
at  a  stipulated  price.  The  assembly  was  ready 
from  time  to  time  to  entertain  various  proposals, 
but  it  never  went  so  far  as  that ;  and  if  Charles, 
in  sanctioning  this  little  New  World  parliament, 
counted  upon  getting  substantial  aid  in  ignoring 
his  Parliament  at  home,  he  was  sadly  disap- 
pointed. 

It  is  now  time  for  us  to  attend  a  session  of  this 
House  of  Burgesses,  to  make  a  report  of  its  work, 
and  to  mention  some  of  the  vicissitudes  which  it 
encountered  in  the  course  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
I.  The  place  of  meeting  was  the  wooden 

IT  rn  •  The  first 

church  at  Jamestown,  50  feet  in  length  American 

legislature. 

by  20  in  width,  built  in  1619,  for  Lord 
Delaware's  church  had  become  dilapidated ;  a  solid 
brick  church,  56  feet  by  28,  was  built  there  in 
1639.  From  the  different  plantations  and  hun- 
dreds the  burgesses  came  mostly  in  their  barges 
or  sloops  to  Jamestown.  In  1634  the  colony  was 
organized  into  counties  and  parishes,  and  the  bur- 
gesses thenceforth  represented  counties,  but  they 
always  kept  their  old  title.  At  first  the  governor, 
council,  and  burgesses  met  together  in  a  single 
assembly,  just  as  in  Massachusetts  until  1644,  just 
as  in  England  the  Lords  and  Commons  usually 
sat  together  before  1339.1  A  member  of  this  Vir- 

1  Skottowe,    Short    History   of  Parliament,  p.   19  ;  Taswell- 
Langmead,  English  Constitutional  History,  p.  262. 


244     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ginia  parliament  must  take  his  breakfast  of  bacon 
and  hoe-cake  betimes,  for  the  meeting  was  called 
together  at  the  third  beat  of  the  drum,  one  hour 
after  sunrise.  The  sessions  were  always  opened 
with  prayers,  and  every  absence  from  this  service 
was  punished  with  a  fine  of  one  shilling.  The 
fine  for  absence  during  the  whole  day  was  half  a 
crown.  In  the  choir  of  the  church  sat  the  gov- 
ernor and  council,  their  coats  trimmed  with  gold 
lace.  By  the  statute  of  1621,  passed  in  this  very 
church,  no  one  was  allowed  to  wear  gold  lace 
except  these  high  officials  and  the  commanders  of 
hundreds,  a  class  of  dignitaries  who  in  1634  were 
succeeded  by  the  county  lieutenants.  In  the  body 
of  the  church,  facing  the  choir,  sat  the  burgesses 
in  their  best  attire,  with  starched  ruffs,  and  coats 
of  silk  or  velvet  in  bright  colours.  All  sat  with 
their  hats  on,  in  imitation  of  the  time-honoured 
custom  of  the  House  of  Commons,  an  early  illus- 
tration of  the  democratic  doctrine,  "  I  am  as  good 
as  you."  These  burgesses  had  their  speaker,  as 
well  as  their  clerk  and  sergeant-at-arms.  Such 
was  the  first  American  legislature,  and  two  of  its 
acts  in  the  year  1624  were  especially  memorable. 
One  was  the  declaration,  passed  without  any  dis- 
senting voice,  "that  the  governor  shall  not  lay 
any  taxes  or  impositions  upon  the  colony,  their 
lands  or  commodities,  otherway  than  by  the 
authority  of  the  general  assembly,  to  be  levied 
and  employed  as  the  said  assembly  shall  appoint." 
The  other  was  the  punishment  of  Edward  Shar- 
pless,  clerk  of  the  house.  When  the  king's  com- 
missioners to  inquire  into  the  affairs  of  Virginia 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  245 

asked  for  the  public  records  of  the  colony  the 
assembly  refused  to  show  them,  albeit  they  were 
ready  to  answer  questions  propounded  in  a  becom- 
ing temper.  But  the  commissioners  practised 
upon  Sharpless  and  induced  him  to  furnish  them 
with  a  copy  of  the  records,  whereupon  the  assem- 
bly condemned  the  said  Sharpless  to  stand  in  the 
pillory  and  have  half  of  one  ear  cut  off. 

This  general  assembly  was  both  a  legislative 
and  a  judicial  body.  It  enacted  laws  and  pre- 
scribed the  penalties  for  breaking  them,  it  tried 
before  a  jury  persons  accused  of  crime  and  saw 
that  due  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  those  who 
were  adjudged  guilty,  it  determined  civil  causes, 
assessed  the  amount  of  damages,  and  saw  that  they 
were  collected.  From  sweeping  principles  of  con- 
stitutional law  down  to  the  pettiest  sumptuary 
edicts,  there  was  nothing  which  this  little  parlia- 
ment did  not  superintend  and  direct.  On  Martin.8 
one  occasion,  "  the  delegates  from  Cap-  case' 
tain  John  Martin's  plantation  were  excepted  to 
because  of  a  peculiar  clause  in  his  patent  releasing 
him  from  obeying  any  order  of  the  colony  except 
in  times  of  war."  A  few  days  afterward  the  said 
Captain  Martin  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  house, 
and  the  speaker  asking  whether  he  would  relin- 
quish the  particular  clause  exempting  him  from 
colonial  authority,  replied  that  he  would  not  yield 
any  part  of  his  patent.  The  assembly  then  re- 
solved that  the  burgesses  of  his  plantation  were 
not  entitled  to  seats.1  Such  exemptions  of  indi- 
vidual planters  by  especial  license  from  the  home 
1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  140. 


246     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

government,  although  rare,  were  of  course  anom- 
alies not  to  be  commended  ;  in  some  cases  they 
proved  to  be  nuisances,  and  in  course  of  time  all 
were  got  rid  of.  From  this  constitutional  ques- 
tion the  assembly  turned  to  the  conversion  of  the 
red  men,  and  enacted  that  each  borough  or  hun- 
dred should  obtain  from  the  Indians  by  just  and 
fair  means  a  certain  number  of  Indian  children  to 
Education  of  ^e  educated  "in  true  religion  and  a  civil 
Indians.  course  of  life;  of  which  children  the 
most  towardly  boys  in  wit  and  graces  of  nature 
[are]  to  be  brought  up  by  them  in  the  first  ele- 
ments of  literature,  so  as  to  be  fitted  for  the  col- 
lege intended  for  them,  that  from  thence  they  may 
be  sent  to  that  work  of  conversion."  Few  enact- 
ments of  any  legislature  have  ever  been  better 
intended  or  less  fruitful  than  this. 

It  was  moreover  enacted  that  any  person  found 
drunk  was  for  the  first  offence  to  be  pri- 
vately  reproved   by   the   minister  ;    the 
second  time  this  reproof  was  to  be  publicly  admin- 
istered ;  the  third  time  the  offender  must  be  put 
in  irons  for  twelve  hours  and  pay  a  fine ;  for  any 
subsequent  offences  he  must  be  severely  punished 
at  the  discretion  of  the  governor  and  council. 
To  guard  the  community  against  excessive  van- 
ity in  dress,  it  was  enacted  that  for  all 
public    contributions    every     unmarried 
man  must  be  assessed  in  church  "  according  to  his 
own  apparel ; "  and  every  married  man  must  be 
assessed  "  according  to  his  own  and  his  wife's  ap- 
parel." 

Not  merely  extravagance   in   dress,   but   such 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.          247 

social  misdemeanours  as  flirting  received  due  legis- 
lative condemnation.     Pretty  maids  were 

i  1-^1  Flirting. 

known  to  encourage  hopes  in  more  than 
one  suitor,  and  gay  deceivers  of  the  sterner  sex 
would  sometimes  seek  to  win  the  affections  of  two 
or  more  women  at  the  same  time.  Wherefore 
it  was  enacted  that  "every  minister  should  give 
notice  in  his  church  that  what  man  or  woman 
soever  should  use  any  word  or  speech  tending  to 
a  contract  of  marriage  to  two  several  persons  at 
one  time  ...  as  might  entangle  or  breed  scruples 
in  their  consciences,  should  for  such  their  offense, 
either  undergo  corporal  correction  [by  whipping] 
or  be  punished  by  fine  or  otherwise,  according  to 
the  quality  of  the  person  so  offending."  1 

Men  were  held  to.more  strict  accountability  for 
the  spoken  or  written  word  than  in  these  shame- 
less  modern   days.     One  of   the  most  prominent 
settlers  we  find  presenting  a  petition  to  the  as- 
sembly to  grant  him  due   satisfaction   against  a 
neighbour   who  has   addressed    to    him    a   letter 
"  wherein  he  taxeth  him  both  unseemly  and  amiss 
of  certain  things  wherein  he  was  never  faulty." 
Speaking   against  the   governor   or  any 
member  of  the  council  was  liable  to  be 
punished  with  the  pillory.      It  was  also  imprudent 
to   speak   too   freely  about  clergymen,  who  were 
held  in  great  reverence.     No  planter  could  dispose 
of  so  much  as  a  pound  of  tobacco  until  he  had  laid 
aside  a  certain  specified  quantity  as  his 
assessment  toward  the  minister's  salary, 
which  was  thus  assured  even  in  the  worst  times,  so 
1  Cooke's  Virginia,  p.  149. 


248     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

far  as  legislation  could  go.  It  was  enacted  that 
"  noe  man  shall  disparage  a  mynister  whereby  the 
myndes  of  his  parishoners  may  be  alienated  from 
him  and  his  mynistrie  prove  less  effectuall,  upon 
payne  of  severe  censure  of  the  governor  and  coun- 
cell."  l  At  the  same  time  clergymen  were  warned 
against  unseemly  practices  in  terms  so  concrete  as 
to  raise  a  suspicion  that  such  warning  may  have 
been  needed.  "Mynisters  shall  not  give  them- 
selves to  excesse  in  drinking  or  ryott,  spending 
their  tynie  idelie  by  day  or  by  night  playing  at 
dice,  cards,  or  any  other  unlawfull  game,  but  at 
all  tymes  convenient  they  shall  heare  or  reade 
somewhat  of  the  holy  scriptures,  or  shall  occupie 
themselves  with  some  other  honest  studies  or  ex- 
ercise, alwayes  doinge  the  things  which  shall 
apperteyne  to  honestie  and  endeavour  to  profitt 
the  church  of  God,  having  alwayes  in  mind  that 
they  ought  to  excell  all  others  in  puritie  of  life, 
should  be  examples  to  the  people,  to  live  well  and 
christianlie."  2 

The  well-being  of  Virginia  society  was  further 
protected  by  sundry  statutes  such  as  the  one  which 
punished  profane  swearing  by  a  fine  of  one  shil- 
Sabbath-  ling  Per  oath.  "  For  the  better  observa- 
breaking.  tjon  Qf  tte  gaboth  "  it  was  enacted  that 

no  person  "  shall  take  a  voyage  vppon  the  same, 
except  it  be  to  church  or  for  other  causes  of 
extreme  necessitie,"  under  penalty  of  forfeiting 
twenty  pounds  of  tobacco  for  each  offence.  A 
similar  fine  was  imposed  for  firing  a  gun  upon 

1  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  i.  156. 

2  Hening,  i.  158,  183. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.          249 

Sunday,  unless  it  might  be  for  defence  against  the 
Indians.  Selling  arms  or  ammunition  to  Indians 
was  punished  by  imprisonment  for  life,  with  con- 
fiscation of  goods.  Every  master  of  a  family  was 
required,  under  penalty  of  ten  pounds  of  tobacco, 
to  bring  with  him  to  church  every  Sunday  a  ser- 
viceable gun  with  plenty  of  powder  and  shot. 

Stringent  legislation  protected  the  rights  of 
thirsty  persons.  "  Whereas  there  hath  strong 
been  great  abuse  by  the  vnreasonable  drink" 
rates  enacted  by  ordinary  keepers,  and  retaylers 
of  wine  and  strong  waters,"  maximum  prices  .were 
established  as  follows :  for  Spanish  wines  30  Ibs. 
of  tobacco  per  gallon,  for  Madeira  20  Ibs.,  for 
French  wines  15  Ibs.,  for  brandy  40  Ibs.,  for  "  the 
best  sorte  of  all  English  strong  waters  "  80  Ibs. ; 
and  any  vender  charging  above  these  rates  was  to 
be  fined  at  double  the  rate.  For  corrupting  or 
"  sophisticating  "  good  liquor  by  fraudulent  admix- 
tures, a  fine  was  imposed  at  the  discretion  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  county  courts.  The  inn- 
keeper who  sold  wines  and  spirits  to  his  guests  did 
so  at  his  own  risk,  for  such  debts  were  not  recov- 
erable at  law.1 

The  ancient  prejudice  against  forestalling  sur- 
vives in  the  following  statute,  which  would  make 
havoc  of  the  business  of  some  modern  brokers : 
"  Whatsoever  person  or  persons  shall  buy 

.      \         ,  -U       J-          Forestallers. 

or  cause  to  be  bought  any  marchandize, 
victualls,  or  any  other  thinge,  comminge  by  land 
or  water  to  the  markett  to  be  sold,  or  make  any 
bargaine,  contract  or  promise  for  the  haveinge  or 
1  Hening,  i.  194,  219,  261,  263,  300,  319,  350. 


250     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

buyinge  of  the  same  .  .  .  before  the  said  mar- 
chandize,  victualls,  or  other  thinge  shall  bee  at  the 
markett  readie  to  be  sold ;  or  make  any  motion 
by  word,  letter  or  message  or  otherwise  to  any 
person  or  persons  for  the  enhaunsing  of  the  price, 
or  dearer  sellinge  of  any  thinge  or  thinges  above 
mentioned,  or  else  disswade,  move,  or  stirr  any 
person  or  persons  cominge  to  the  marquett,  to 
abstaine  or  f orbeare  to  bringe  or  conveye  any  of 
the  things  above  rehearsed  to  any  markett  as 
aforesayd,  shall  be  deemed  and  adjudged  a  fore- 
staller.  And  yf  any  person  or  persons  shall 
offend  in  the  things  before  recited  and  beinge 
thereof  dulie  convicted  or  attaynted  shall  for  his 
or  theire  first  offence  suffer  imprisonment  by  the 
space  of  two  mounthes  without  baile  or  maine- 
prize,  and  shall  also  loose  and  forfeite  the  value 
of  the  goods  soe  by  him  or  them  bought  or  had  as 
aforesayd;  and  for  a  second  offence  .  .  .  shall 
suffer  imprisonment  by  the  space  of  one  halfe 
yeare  .  .  .  and  shall  loose  the  double  value  of  all 
the  goods  .  .  .  soe  bought  .  .  .  and  for  the  third 
offence  .  .  .  shall  be  sett  on  the  pillorie  .  .  .  and 
loose  and  forfeit  all  the  goods  and  chattels  that 
he  or  they  then  have  to  theire  owne  use,  and  also 
be  committed  to  prison,  there  to  remayne  duringe 
the  Governor's  pleasure."  1 

Edmund  Spenser,  in  his  dedication  of  the 
"  Faery  Queene,"  in  1590,  calls  Elizabeth  the 
queen  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland,  and  of 
Virginia,  thus  characterizing  as  a  kingdom  the 

1  Hening,  i.  194. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  251 

vast  and  vague  domain  in  the  New  World  which 
she  was  appropriating.  Soon  after  the  downfall 
of  the  Virginia  Company,  the  document  contain- 
ing Charles  I.'s  appointment  of  William  Claiborne 
as  secretary  of  state  in  the  colony  men- 

1-1  f  TT-       •     •  Thekinf?- 

tioned  it  as  "  our  kingdom  of  Virginia ;      dom  of  vir- 

.  •    .    .  ginia. 

and  the  phrase  occurs  in  other  writings 
of  the  time.  It  is  a  phrase  that  seems  especially 
appropriate  for  the  colony  after  it  had  come  to 
be  a  royal  province,  directly  dependent  upon  the 
king  for  its  administration.  During  the  reign  of 
Charles  I.  the  relations  of  the  kingdom  of  Vir- 
ginia to  the  mother  country  were  marked  by  few 
memorable  incidents.  In  this  respect  the  contrast 
with  the  preceding  reign  is  quite  striking.  One 
must  read  the  story  in  the  original  state  papers, 
correspondence,  and  pamphlets  of  the  time,  in 
order  to  realize  to  what  an  extent  the  colony  was 
cut  loose  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Company.  The 
most  interesting  and  important  questions  that  came 
up  were  connected  with  the  settlement  of  Mary- 
land, but  before  we  enter  upon  that  subject,  a  few 
words  are  needed  on  the  succession  of  royal  gov- 
ernors in  Virginia. 

The  commission  of  Yeardley  in  1626  named  Sir 
John  Harvey  as  his  successor.  When  Yeardley 
died  in  1627,  Harvey  had  not  arrived  upon  the 
scene,  and  needed  to  be  notified.  In  such  cases  it 
was  the  business  of  the  council  to  appoint  a  gov- 
ernor ad  interim,  and  the  council  appointed  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  honoured  settlers,  Francis 
West,  brother  of  the  late  Lord  Delaware.  After 
one  year  of  service  business  called  West  to  Eng- 


252     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

land,  and  his  place  was  taken  by  Dr.  John  Pott, 
who  held  the  government  until  Sir  John  Harvey's 
arrival  in  March,  1630.  This  Dr.  Pott  is  described 
as  "  a  Master  of  Arts,  .  .  .  well  practised  in  chi- 
rurgery  and  physic,  and  expert  also  in  distilling  of 
waters,  [besides]  many  other  ingenious  devices."  J 
A  convivial  ^  seems  that  he  was  likewise  very  fond 
governor.  of  f;ast;ing  distilled  waters,  and  at  times 
was  more  of  a  boon  companion  than  quite  com- 
ported with  his  dignity,  especially  after  he  had 
come  to  be  governor.  A  letter  of  George  Sandys 
to  a  friend  in  London  says  of  Dr.  Pott,  "  at  first 
he  kept  company  too  much  with  his  inferiors,  who 
hung  upon  him  while  his  good  liquor  lasted. 
After,  he  consorted  with  Captain  Whitacres,  a 
man  of  no  good  example,  with  whom  he  has  gone 
to  Kecoughtan."  2  What  was  done  by  the  twain 
at  Kecoughtan  is  not  matter  of  record,  but  we  are 
left  with  a  suggestion  of  the  darkest  possibilities 
of  a  carouse. 

After  Harvey's  arrival  ex-Governor  Pott  was 
arrested,  and  held  to  answer  two  charges :  one  was 
for  having  abused  the  powers  entrusted  to  him  by 
pardoning  a  culprit  who  had  been  convicted  of 
wilful  murder ;  the  other  was  for  stealing  cattle. 
The  first  charge  was  a  matter  of  common  noto- 
riety ;  on  the  second  Dr.  Pott  was  tried  by  a  jury 
and  found  guilty.  The  ex-governor  was  not  only 
a  pardoner  of  felony,  but  a  felon  himself.  The 
affair  reads  like  a  scene  in  comic  opera.  Some 
reluctance  was  felt  about  inflicting  vulgar  punish- 

1  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  p.  221. 

2  Neill's  Virginia  Carolorum,  p.  79. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  VIRGINIA.  253 

ment  upon  an  educated  man  of  good  social  posi- 
tion ;  so  he  was  not  sent  to  jail  but  confined  in  his 
own  house,  while  Sir  John  Harvey  wrote  to  the 
king  for  instructions  in  the  matter.  He  informed 
the  king  that  Dr.  Pott  was  by  far  the  best  phy- 
sician in  the  colony,  and  indeed  the  only  one 
"skilled  in  epidemicals,"  and  recommended  that 
he  should  be  pardoned.  Accordingly  the  doctor 
was  set  free  and  forthwith  resumed  his  practice. 

Soon  it  was  Governor  Harvey's  turn  to  get  into 
difficulties.  How  he  was  "thrust  out"  from  his 
government  in  1635  and  restored  to  it  by  Charles 
I.  in  1637  will  best  be  told  in  a  future  chapter  in 
connection  with  the  affairs  of  Maryland.  After 
Harvey's  final  departure  in  1639,  Sir  Francis 
Wyatt  was  once  more  governor  for  three  years, 
and  then  came  the  famous  Sir  William  Berkeley, 
who  remained  for  five-and-thirty  years  Growth  of 
the  most  conspicuous  figure  in  Virginia.  Virsmia- 
When  Berkeley  arrived  upon  the  scene,  in  1642, 
on  the  eve  of  the  great  Civil  War,  he  received 
from  Wyatt  the  government  of  a  much  greater 
Virginia  than  that  over  which  Wyatt  was  ruling 
in  1624.  Those  eighteen  years  of  self-government 
had  been  years  of  remarkable  prosperity  and  pro- 
gress. Instead  of  4,000  English  and  22  negroes, 
the  population  now  numbered  15,000  English  and 
300  negroes.  Moreover,  Virginia  was  no  longer 
the  only  English  colony.  In  1624  there  were  no 
others,  except  the  little  band  of  about  other 
200  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  In  1642  the  colonie8- 
population  of  New  England  numbered  26,000, 
distributed  among  half-a-dozen  self-governing  col- 


254     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

onies.  There  was  also  a  community  of  Dutch- 
men laying  claim  to  the  whole  region  between 
the  Mohawk  valley  and  Delaware  Bay,  with  a 
flourishing  town  on  Manhattan  Island  in  the  finest 
commercial  situation  on  the  whole  Atlantic  coast. 
The  Virginians  did  not  relish  the  presence  of 
these  Dutchmen,  for  they  too  laid  claim  to  that 
noble  tract  of  country.  The  people  of  Virginia 
had  made  the  first  self-supporting  colony  and  felt 
that  they  had  established  a  claim  upon  the  middle 
zone.  The  very  name  Virginia  had  not  yet  ceased 
to  cling  to  it.  In  books  of  that  time  one  may  read 
of  the  town  of  New  Amsterdam  upon  the  island  of 
Manhattan  in  Virginia.  In  1635  a  party  of  Vir- 
ginians went  up  to  the  Delaware  River  and  took 
possession  of  an  old  blockhouse  there,  called  Fort 
Nassau,  which  the  Dutch  had  abandoned ;  but  a 
force  from  New  Amsterdam  speedily  took  them 
prisoners  and  sent  them  back  to  Virginia,1  with  a 
polite  warning  not  to  do  so  any  more.  They  did 
not. 

Still  nearer  at  hand,  by  the  waters  of  the  Poto- 
mac and  Susquehanna,  other  rivals  and  competi- 
tors, even  more  unwelcome  to  the  Virginians,  had 
lately  come  upon  the  scene.  The  circumstances  of 
the  founding  of  Maryland,  with  its  effects  upon 
the  kingdom  of  Virginia,  will  be  recounted  in  the 
two  following  chapters. 

1  Brodhead's  History  of  New  York,  i.  254. 


CHAPTER  VIET. 

THE   MARYLAND   PALATINATE. 

ON  the  southwestern  coast  of  Ireland,  not  far 
from  Cape  Clear,  the  steamship  on  its  way  from 
New   York   to  Liverpool  passes  within  T^^gh 
sight  of  a  small  promontory  crowned  by  Baltmiore- 
an   ancient  village   bearing  the  Gaelic  name  of 
Baltimore,   which   signifies   "  large   townlands." * 
The  events  which  transferred  this  Irish  name  to 
the  banks  of  the  Patapsco  River  make  an  interest- 
ing chapter  of  history. 

George  Calvert,  son  of  a  wealthy  Yorkshire 
farmer  of  Flemish  descent,  was  born  about  1580. 
After  taking  his  degree  at  Oxford  and  travelling 
for  some  time  on  the  Continent,  he  was  Ge0rge 
employed  as  an  under-secretary  in  the  Calvert- 
state  department  by  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  after  whom 
he  named  his  eldest  son  Cecilius.  His  warm  advo- 
cacy of  the  Spanish  marriage  made  him  a  great 
favourite  of  James  L,  so  that  in  1617  he  was 
knighted  and  in  1619  was  appointed  secretary  of 
state.  He  seems  always  to  have  had  a  leaning 
toward  the  Roman  Church.  Whether  he  was  con- 
verted in  1624,  or  simply  made  public  profession 
of  a  faith  long  cherished  in  secret,  is  matter  of 
doubt.  At  all  events,  he  resigned  his  secretary. 
1  Joyce,  Irish  Names  of  Places,  Dublin,  1869,  p.  322. 


256     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ship  at  that  time.  The  next  year  one  of  the  last 
things  done  by  James,  a  few  days  before  his  death, 
was  to  raise  Calvert  to  the  Irish  peerage  as  Baron 
Baltimore. 

The  son  of  Mary  Stuart  had  a  liberal  way  of 

dealing  with  his  favourites.     In  March,  1623,  he 

granted  the  great  southeastern  promon- 

A.  palatinate    c  „ •it 

in  New-        tory  in  Newfoundland  —  the  region  now 

foundland.  *  3 

known  as  Ferryland,  between  Trinity 
and  Placentia  bays  —  to  George  Calvert,  to  be 
held  by  him  and  his  heirs  forever.  The  govern- 
ment was  to  be  a  "  palatinate,"  a  statement  which 
calls  for  a  somewhat  detailed  explanation. 

When  that  great  and  far-sighted  ruler  William 
the  Conqueror  arranged  the  affairs  of  England 
after  the  battle  of  Hastings,  he  sought  to  prevent 
such  evils  as  those  against  which  the  newly 
founded  Capetian  monarchy  in  France  was  strug- 
gling for  life,  evils  arising  from  the  imperfect 
subordination  of  the  great  feudal  lords.  To  this 
end  he  made  it  a  rule  not  to  grant  large  contigu- 
ous estates  to  the  same  lord,  and  in  every  county 
he  provided  that  the  king's  officer,  the  sheriff, 
should  be  clothed  with  powers  overriding  those  of 
the  local  manorial  officers.  He  also  obliged  the 
tenants  of  the  barons  to  swear  fealty  directly  to 
the  crown.  This  shrewd  and  wholesome  policy,  as 
developed  under  his  able  son  Henry  I.  and  his 
still  abler  great-grandson  Henry  II.,  has  pro- 
foundly affected  the  political  career  of  the  English 
origin  of  race.  But  to  this  general  policy  William 
palatinates.  a(jmjtted  one  class  of  exceptions.  In 
the  border  counties,  which  were  never  quite  free 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         257 

from  the  fear  of  invasion,  and  where  lawlessness 
was  apt  to  be  more  or  less  prevalent  in  time  of 
peace,  it  was  desirable  to  make  the  local  rulers 
more  powerful.  Considerations  of  this  sort  pre- 
vailed throughout  mediaeval  Europe.  Universally, 
the  ruler  of  a  march  or  border  county,  the  count 
or  graf  or  earl  placed  in  such  a  responsible  posi- 
tion, acquired  additional  power  and  dignity,  and 
came  to  be  distinguished  by  a  grander  title,  as 
margrave,  marquis,  or  count  of  the  marches.  In 
accordance  with  this  general  principle,  William 
the  Conqueror  granted  exceptional  powers  and 
consolidation  of  authority  to  three  counties,  to 
Durham  on  the  Scotch  border,  to  Chester  on  the 
border  of  Wales,  and  to  Kent,  where  an  invader 
from  the  Continent  might  with  least  difficulty 
effect  a  landing.  Local  administration  in  those 
counties  was  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the 
the  county  ruler ;  they  were  made  exceptionally 
strong  to  serve  as  buffers  for  the  rest  of  the 
kingdom,  and  they  were  called  "  palatinates  "  or 
"counties  palatine,"  implying  that  within  their 
boundaries  the  rulers  had  quasi-regal  rights  as 
complete  as  those  which  the  king  had  in  his  palace. 
They  appointed  the  officers  of  justice,  they  could 
pardon  treasons  and  felonies,  forfeitures  at  com- 
mon law  accrued  to  them,  and  legal  writs  ran  in 
their  name  instead  of  the  king's.  The  title  of 
"  count  palatine  "  carries  us  back  to  the  times  of 
the  Merovingian  kings  in  Gaul,  when  it  belonged 
to  one  of  the  highest  officers  in  the  royal  house- 
hold, who  took  judicial  cognizance  of  all  pleas 
of  the  crown.  Hence  the  title  came  to  be  applied 


258     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

to  other  officers  endowed  with  quasi-regal  powers. 
Such  were  the  counts  palatine  of  the  Rhine  and 
Bavaria,  who  in  the  course  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury became  electoral  princes  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire.  One  of  their  domains,  the  Rhenish  Pala- 
tinate, of  which  Heidelberg  in  its  peerless  beauty 
is  the  crown  and  glory,  has  contributed,  as  we 
shall  hereafter  see,  an  element  of  no  small  im- 
portance to  the  population  of  the  United  States. 

To  return  to  William  the  Conqueror  :  in  an  age 

when  the  organization  of  society  was  so  imperfect, 

and  action  at  a  distance  so  slow  and  difficult,  the 

possession  of  quasi-regal  powers  by  the 

English        rulers  of  the  palatine  counties  made  it 

palatinates.  *  -IT 

much  easier  for  them  to  summon  quickly 
their  feudal  forces  in  case  of  sudden  invasion.  In 
view  of  the  frequency  of  quarrels  and  raids  on  the 
border,  the  quasi-regal  authority  was  liable  at  any 
moment  to  be  needed  to  prevent  war  from  break- 
ing out,  and  the  proper  administration  of  justice 
demanded  a  short  shrift  and  a  sharp  doom  for  evil- 
doers. The  powers  granted  by  William  to  the 
palatine  counties  resembled  those  wielded  by  the 
French  dukedoms  of  the  same  period,  but  with 
admirable  forethought  he  appointed  to  rule  them 
priests  who  could  not  marry  and  found  feudal 
families.  Durham  and  for  a  time  Chester  were 
ruled  by  their  bishops,  and  over  Kent  as  a  secular 
jurisdiction  William  placed  his  own  brother,  Odo, 
Bishop  of  Bayeux.  In  course  of  time  many 
changes  occurred.  Kent  soon  lost  its  palatine 
privileges,  while  those  of  Chester  were  exercised 
by  its  earls  until  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  when  the 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         259 

earldom  lapsed  to  the  crown.  After  the  conquest 
of  Wales  the  county  of  Pembroke  on  its  south- 
western coast  was  made  a  palatinate,  but  its  privi- 
leges were  withdrawn  by  Henry  VIII.  For  a 
time  such  privileges  were  enjoyed  by  Hexhamshire, 
between  Durham  and  Northumberland,  but  under 
Elizabeth  that  little  county  was  absorbed  in 
Northumberland.  One  other  northern  shire,  the 
duchy  of  Lancaster,  was  made  a  palatinate  by 
Edward  III.,  but  that  came  to  an  end  in  1399, 
when  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  ascended  the  throne 
of  England  as  Henry  IV.  Traces  of  its  old  pala- 
tinate jurisdiction,  however,  still  survive.  Until 
the  Judicature  Act  of  1873  Lancaster  and  Dur- 
ham had  each  its  own  distinct  and  independent 
court  of  common  pleas,  and  the  duchy  of  Lancas- 
ter has  still  its  own  chancellor  and  chancery  court 
outside  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  lord  chancellor. 
As  for  the  palatine  authority  of  the  bishops  .of 
Durham,  it  was  vested  in  the  crown  in  the  year 
preceding  the  accession  of  Victoria. 

From  this  survey  it  appears  that  by  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  the  bishopric  of  Durham  was 
left  as  the  only  complete  instance  of  a  palatinate, 

or  kingdom  within  the  kingdom.     In  the 

The  bishop- 
northern   marches   the  need  tor  such  a  ncofDur- 

ham. 

buffer  was  longer   felt  than   elsewhere, 
and  the  old  political  structure  remained  very  much 
as  it  had  been  created  by  William  L,  with  the 
mitred  bishop  at   its  head.     The   great  Norman 
cathedral,  in  its  position  of  unequalled  grandeur, 

"  Half  house  of  God, 
Half  castle  'gainst  the  Scot," 


260     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

still  rears  its  towers  in  the  blue  sky  to  remind  us 
of  the  stern  days  when  tartan-clad  thousands  caine 
swarming  across  the  Tweed,  to  fall  in  heaps  before 
the  longbow  at  Halidon  Hill  and  Neville's  Cross 
and  on  many  another  field  of  blood.  When  the 
king  of  Scots  came  to  be  king  of  England,  this 
principality  of  Durham  afforded  an  instance  of  a 
dominion  thoroughly  English  yet  semi-independ- 
ent, unimpeachable  for  loyalty  but  distinct  in  its 
administration.  It  was  not  strange,  therefore,  that 
it  should  have  served  as  a  pattern  for  colonial 
governments  to  be  set  up  in  the  New  World.  For 
such  governments  virtual  independence  combined 
with  hearty  allegiance  was  the  chief  desideratum, 
a  fact  which  in  later  days  George  III.  unfortu- 
nately forgot.  From  the  merely  military  point  of 
view  a  colony  in  the  American  wilderness  stood  in 
at  least  as  much  need  of  palatine  authority  as  any 
frontier  district  in  the  Old  World.  Accordingly, 
when  it  was  decided  to  entrust  the  work  of  found- 
ing an  American  colony  to  a  nobleman  with  his 
clientage  of  followers,  an  example  of  the  needful 
organization  was  already  furnished  by  the  great 
northern  bishopric.  Calvert's  province  in  New- 
Avaionand  foundland,  which  received  the  name  of 
Durham.  Avalon,1  was  to  be  modeUed  after  the 
palatinate  of  Durham,  and  the  powers  granted  to 
its  lord  proprietor  were  perhaps  the  most  exten- 
sive ever  bestowed  by  the  English  crown  upon  any 
subject. 

1  From  the  so-called  isle  of  Avalon,  in  Somerset,  reputed  to  be 
the  place  where  Christianity  was  first  preached  in  Britain ;  the 
site  of  the  glorious  minster  of  Glastonbury,  where  rest  the  ashes 
of  Edgar  the  Peaceful  and  Edmund  Ironside. 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         261 

A  party  of  colonists  went  at  once  to  Newfound- 
land in  1623,  but  various  affairs  detained  Baltimore's 
Lord  Baltimore  at  home  until  1627,  when  S^d. 
he  came  with  his  wife  and  children  to  land<* 
dwell  in  this  New  World  paradise  of  Avalon .  The 
trail  of  the  serpent  was  already  there.  A  French 
fleet  came  to  attack  the  colony,  meditating  revenge 
for  Argall's  treatment  of  the  French  at  Mount 
Desert  and  Port  Royal,  but  Baltimore's  ships  were 
heavily  armed  and  well  handled,  and  the  French- 
men got  the  worst  of  it.  Then  a  party  of  Puritans 
came  to  Avalon,  and  these  unbidden  guests  were 
horrified  at  what  they  saw.  The  Rev.  Erasmus 
Stourton  returned  to  England  with  a  shocking 
story  of  how  Lord  Baltimore  not  only  had  the 
mass  performed  every  Sunday,  but  had  even  al- 
lowed a  Presbyterian  child  to  be  baptized  by  a 
Romish  priest.  Then  the  climate  of  Avalon  proved 
to  be  anything  but  what  had  been  expected.  One 
Captain  Richard  Whitbourne  had  published  an 
enthusiastic  book  in  which  he  recorded  his  memo- 
ries of  June  days  in  Newfoundland,  with  their 
delicious  wild  strawberries  and  cherries,  the  soft 
air  redolent  with  the  fragrance  of  red  and  white 
roses,  the  woods  vocal  with  thrushes  and  other 
songsters  that  rivalled  the  nightingale  ;  of  wild 
beasts  there  were  none  that  were  harmful,  and  "in 
St.  John's  harbour  he  once  saw  a  mermaid."1 
Lord  Baltimore  learned  that  it  was  not  always 
June  in  Avalon.  He  wrote  to  Charles  I.  in  Au- 
gust, 1629,  as  follows :  "  I  have  met  with  diffi- 
culties and  encumbrances  here  which  in  this  place 

1  Browne's  Culverts,  p.  17. 


262     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

are  no  longer  to  be  resisted,  but  enforce  me  pre- 
sently to  quit  my  residence  and  to  shift  to  some 
other  warmer  climate  of  this  New  World,  where 
the  winters  be  shorter  and  less  rigorous.  For  here 
your  Majesty  may  please  to  understand  that  I  have 
found  by  too  dear-bought  experience,  which  other 
men  for  their  private  interests  always  concealed 
from  me,  that  from  the  middle  of  October  to  the 
middle  of  May  there  is  a  sad  fare  of  winter  upon 
all  this  land ;  both  sea  and  land  so  frozen  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  as  they  are  not  penetrable, 
no  plant  or  vegetable  thing  appearing  out  of  the 
earth  until  the  beginning  of  May,  nor  fish  in  the 
sea;  beside  the  air  so  intolerable  cold  as  it  is 
hardly  to  be  endured.  By  means  whereof,  and  of 
much  salt  meat,  my  house  hath  been  an  hospital 
all  this  winter ;  of  a  hundred  persons  fifty  sick  at 
a  time,  myself  being  one,  and  nine  or  ten  of  them 
died.  Hereupon  I  have  had  strong  temptations  to 
leave  all  proceedings  in  plantations,  and  being 
much  decayed  in  my  strength,  to  retire  myself  to 
my  former  quiet ;  but  my  inclination  carrying  me 
naturally  to  these  kind  of  works,  and  not  knowing 
how  better  to  employ  the  poor  remainder  of  my 
days  than  ...  to  further,  the  best  I  may,  the 
enlarging  your  Majesty's  empire  in  this  part  of 
the  world,  I  am  determined  to  commit  this  place 
to  fishermen  that  are  able  to  encounter  storms  and 
hard  weather,%  and  to  remove  myself  with  some 
forty  persons  to  your  Majesty's  dominion  Virginia ; 
where,  if  your  Majesty  will  please  to  grant  me  a 
precinct  of  land,  with  such  privileges  as  the  king 
your  father  .  .  .  was  pleased  to  grant  me  here,  I 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        263 

shall  endeavour  to  the   utmost  of  my  power,  to 
deserve  it."  1 

To  this  letter  the  king  returned  a  gracious  re- 
ply, in  which  he  advised  Lord  Baltimore,  for  the 
sake  of  his  own  comfort  and  peace  of  mind,  to  give 
up  such  arduous  kind  of  work  and  return  to  Eng- 
land ;  but  before  this  reply  reached  Avalon,  its 
proprietor  had  sailed  for  Virginia,  with 

T      f     T»    i    •  11  i  .11  i          Baltimore's 

Lady  Baltimore  and  the  children,  and  a  visit  to  vir- 

ginia. 

small  retinue  of  servants  and  followers. 
He  wished  to  see  that  country  with  his  own  eyes 
and  learn  if  it  were  really  fit  for  his  purposes.  On 
the  first  day  of  October,  1629,  he  arrived  at  James- 
town, where  he  found  the  assembly  in  session. 
That  versatile  physician,  Dr.  Pott,  so  skilled  in 
"  epidemicals  "  and  strong  waters  and  afterward 
convicted  of  lifting  cattle,  was  then  acting  as  gov- 
ernor. The  reception  given  to  Lord  Baltimore 
was  anything  but  cordial.  All  good  Virginians 
hated  Papists,  and  this  particular  Papist  was 
known  to  stand  in  high  favour  with  the  king,  so 
that  he  might  turn  out  to  be  dangerous.  He  had 
been  one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  by  James 
I.  to  look  into  the  affairs  of  Virginia ;  what  if  he 
were  to  persuade  Charles  I.  to  turn  over  the  colony 
into  his  hands  for  safe  -  keeping  ?  There  was 
really  not  the  slightest  danger  of  such  a  thing. 
Baltimore's  wish  was  not  to  take  possession  of  a 
colony  already  established,  but  to  found  one  him- 
self in  accordance  with  his  own  ideas.  Tt  was  not 
his  purpose  to  become  lord  over  the  Virginians,  but 
their  neighbour,  who  might  dwell  near  them  on 

1  Browne's  Calverts,  p.  25. 


264     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

amicable  terms.  But  the  Virginians  did  not  wish 
to  receive  him  in  any  capacity  or  on  any  terms, 
except  as  a  transient  guest.  There  was  an  obvi- 
ous and  easy  device  for  getting  rid  of  him.  Dr. 
Pott  and  the  council  tendered  to  him  the  oath  of 
supremacy,  which  of  course  he  could  not  take. 
This  oath  was  a  sworn  recognition  of  the  English 
sovereign  as  the  only  supreme  authority  through- 
out the  British  dominions  in  all  matters  ecclesias- 
tical and  spiritual.  No  Catholic  could  take  such 
an  oath.  Baltimore  proposed  an  alternative  decla- 
ration of  allegiance  to  which  he  could  swear,  but 
such  a  compromise  was  of  course  refused.  Even 
had  Dr.  Pott  and  the  council  felt  authorized  to 
assume  such  responsibility,  accommodation  was  not 
what  they  desired,  and  the  royal  favourite  was  told 
that  he  must  sail  for  England  at  once.  It  appears 
that  he  met  with  some  very  rude  treatment  at 
Jamestown,  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been  pub- 
licly rebuked  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  royal 
governor,  Sir  John  Harvey,  in  the  following 
March;  for  on  the  records  of  the  assembly  for 
March  25,  1630,  occurs  the  entry :  "  Thomas  Tin- 
dall  to  be  pilloried  two  hours,  for  giving  my  Lord 
Baltimore  the  lie  and  threatening  to  knock  him 
down."  It  is  evident,  however,  that  such  unseemly 
conduct  could  not  have  met  with  approval  among 
respectable  people  at  Jamestown,  for  when  Balti- 
more sailed  he  left  his  wife  and  children  there. 
It  is  clear  that  he  intended  soon  to  return,  and 
wished  to  save  them  the  discomforts  and  perils  of 
the  double  voyage.  He  knew  that  Virginian  hos- 
pitality could  be  relied  on.  His  purpose  of  return- 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        265 

ing  must  have  been  well  known,  for  the  secretary 
of  the  colony,  William  Claiborne,  was  sent  to  Lon- 
don to  keep  an  eye  upon  him  and  thwart  his 
schemes  as  far  as  possible.  After  arriving  in  Eng- 
land, Lord  Baltimore  found  so  many  hindrances  to 
be  reckoned  with  that  he  sent  for  his  family  and 
they  followed  him  by  a  later  ship. 

Baltimore's  first  request  was  for  a  tract  of  ter- 
ritory lying  south  of  James  River  as  far  as  the 
mouth  of  the  Chowan  (or  Passamagnus)  River 
in  Albemarle  Sound.  This  province  was  to  be 
called  Carolina,  either  in  honour  of  Charles  I.,  or 
because  the  name  had  been  given  by  the  Hugue- 
nots in  1562  in  honour  of  Charles  IX.  of  France 
to  a  point  farther  south  on  that  coast  and  was 
vaguely  applicable  to  territory  between  Virginia 
and  Florida.  A  charter  conveying  this  land  to 
Lord  Baltimore  had  already  been  made  out  when 
Claiborne  appeared  with  his  objections,  which  were 
supported  by  other  persons  in  London  who  were 
entertaining  schemes  for  founding  a  sugar-plant- 
ing colony  in  Carolina.  The  matter  was  discussed 
in  the  Privy  Council,  and  Baltimore's  attention 
was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  Dutch  were  taking 
possession  of  the  country  between  the  Hudson 
and  Delaware  rivers ;  would  it  not  therefore  be 
desirable  to  found  a  colony  north  of  the  Potomac, 
and  squeeze  these  unwelcome  intruders  into  as 
narrow  a  space  as  possible  ?  Baltimore  accepted 
this  suggestion,  and  a  charter  was  drawn  ^g  charter 
up,  granting  to  him  as  lord  proprietor  ofMaryland- 
the  province  which  received  the  name  of  Mary- 
land, after  Charles's  Catholic  queen,  Henriette 


266     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Marie,  in  England  commonly  called  Queen  Mary. 
The  charter,  which  Baltimore  drew  up  with  his 
own  hand,  was  in  the  main  a  copy  of  the  Avalon 
charter  ;  but  before  it  had  received  the  royal  seal 
he  died,  in  April,  1632.  In  June  the  charter  was 
issued  to  his  eldest  son  Cecilius  Calvert,  second 
baron  of  Baltimore. 

In  obtaining  this  new  grant  of  Maryland,  the 
Calverts  did  not  regard  themselves  as  giving  up 
their  hold  upon  Newfoundland.  Cecilius  appointed 
a  governor  for  Avalon  as  a  fishing  station,  but  in 
1637,  with  characteristic  recklessness,  the  king 
granted  it  to  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  and  some 
other  noblemen,  on  the  erround  that  the 

Fate  of  the  111  <•    • 

Avaion         charter  had   been   forfeited    by   disuse. 

charter. 

More  or  less  controversy  went  on  until 
1663,  when  in  consequence  of  a  judgment  in  the 
courts  pronouncing  the  Hamilton  grant  void, 
Avalon  was  surrendered  to  Cecilius.  But  his  de- 
scendants really  neglected  it,  until  in  1754  the 
charter  was  again  declared  forfeited,  and  the 
crown  resumed  its  rights  over  the  whole  of  that 
large  island. 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  physical  hardships 
sustained  in  Newfoundland  that  cut  off  the  first 
Lord  Baltimore  prematurely  in  his  fifty-third 
year  and  prevented  his  witnessing  the  success  of 
the  enterprise  which  he  had  so  much  at  heart. 
His  plan  was  to  found  in  the  New  World  a  com- 
monwealth where  Catholics  might  find  a  welcome 
refuge  from  the  oppressive  legislation  to  which 
they  were  subjected  in  England.  It  was  a  plan 
that  could  be  carried  out  only  by  adopting  a  policy 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         267 

of  universal  toleration  utterly  unknown  in  that 
age  outside  of  the  Netherlands.  It  called  character  of 
for  the  utmost  sagacity  and  tact,  and  ^erdftBaiti- 
was  likely  to  require  on  the  part  of  the  more> 
ruler  all  the  well-nigh  royal  powers  with  which 
Lord  Baltimore  had  been  endowed.  Though  the 
scheme  was  left  for  the  son  to  put  into  successful 
operation,  it  was  devised  by  the  father  and  stamps 
him  as  no  ordinary  man.  It  is  right  that  he 
should  be  honoured  as  the  first  founder  of  Mary- 
land. His  portrait,  painted  for  Lord  Bacon  by 
the  illustrious  Daniel  Mytens,  is  now  in  the  gallery 
of  the  Earl  of  Verulam,  and  there  is  a  fine  copy 
of  it  in  the  state-house  at  Annapolis.  The  face 
is  courteous  and  amiable,  albeit  somewhat  melan- 
choly, and  shows  refinement  and  intelligence,  as 
well  as  the  honesty  for  which  he  was  noted. 
George  Calvert's  integrity  was  such  that  through- 
out his  public  life  men  respected  and  trusted  him 
without  distinction  of  party.  Of  the  sincerity  of 
his  religious  feelings  one  gets  a  glimpse  in  such 
characteristic  passages  as  the  following,  from  a 
letter  to  his  friend,  the  great  Earl  of  Strafford: 
"  All  things,  my  lord,  in  this  world  pass  away  ; 
wife,  children,  honours,  wealth,  friends,  and  what 
else  is  dear  to  flesh  and  blood.  They  are  but  lent 
us  till  God  please  to  call  for  them  back  again, 
that  we  may  not  esteem  anything  our  own,  or  set 
our  hearts  upon  anything  but  Him  alone,  who 
only  remains  forever."  1 

Of  the  early  life  of  the   son,  Cecilius  Calvert, 
very  little  is  known.     He  was  born  in  1606  and 

1  Browne's  Culverts,  p.  29. 


268     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

entered  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  in  1621,  but 
there  is  no  record  of  his  having  taken  a  degree. 
He  was  hardly  more  than  eighteen  years  old  when 
ceciiiusCai-  ^e  became  the  husband  of  Lady  Anne 
ITrdBait£d  Arundel,  whose  name  is  left  upon  one 
of  the  counties  of  Maryland,  and  whose 
portrait  by  Vandyck,  preserved  in  Wardour  Cas- 
tle, shows  her  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful women  of  her  time.  An  engraved  portrait  of 
Cecilius,  made  in  1657  and  now  in  possession  of 
the  Maryland  Historical  Society,  gives  us  the  im- 
pression of  great  sagacity  and  power,  with  the 
repose  that  comes  from  undisturbed  self-control. 
There  is  perhaps  more  astuteness  than  in  the 
father's  face,  but  the  look  is  also  frank,  as  well  as 
lofty  and  refined.  Through  many  difficulties  the 
plan  conceived  by  George  Calvert  was  put  into 
operation  by  Cecilius,  who  is  to  be  regarded  as 
preeminently  the  founder  of  Maryland.  His  strong 
personality  is  impressed  upon  the  whole  history  of 
that  interesting  community ;  yet  singularly  enough, 
the  second  Lord  Baltimore  never  visited  the  col- 
ony to  which  the  labours  of  his  long  life  were 
devoted.  He  cherished  at  first  an  intention  of 
going  out  with  the  first  party  of  colonists,  but 
finding  that  London  fairly  swarmed  with  enemies 
to  the  enterprise,  he  found  it  most  prudent  to  stay 
there  and  contend  with  them.  This  was  only  the 
beginning  of  long  years  of  arduous  work  in  which 
the  right  time  for  leaving  England  never  came, 
and  the  Moses  of  this  new  migration  and  fresh 
departure  in  the  way  of  founding  states  was  at 
last  gathered  unto  his  fathers  without  ever  having 
set  foot  in  the  Promised  Land. 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         269 

In  two  ways  the  founding  of  Maryland  was  a 
new  departure  in  methods  of  colonization.  In  the 
first  place,  it  introduced  into  America  a  new  type 
of  colonial  government.  The  Spanish  and  French 
colonies  were  simple  despotisms  administered  by 
viceroyal  governors,  sometimes  with  advisory  coun- 
cils, sometimes  partly  held  in  check  by  an  officer 
called  the  intendant,  who  was  himself  a 

rm  f  TT-          •*• new  tJrPe 

counter-despot.     I  he  government  of  Vir-  of  colonial 

..          .  «  .  PI/^I  government. 

ginia  after  the  suppression  of  the  Com- 
pany was  called  a  crown  government  because  the 
governor  and  council  were  appointed  by  the  king  ; 
it  was  not  a  despotism,  because  there  was  an  assem- 
bly elected  by  the  people,  without  whose  consent 
no  taxes  could  be  assessed  or  collected.  The  bond 
of  connection  with  the  mother  country  was  loose 
but  real.  A  contrast  was  afforded  by  Massachu- 
setts, which  under  its  first  charter,  from  1629  to 
1684,  was  a  true  republic,  with  governor,  council, 
and  assembly  all  elected  within  the  colony,  so  that 
the  administration  could  move  on  quite  independ- 
ently of  any  action  in  England.  In  the  proprie- 
tary governments,  of  which  Maryland  was  the 
first  example,  the  lord  proprietor  stepped  into  the 
place  of  the  crown,  while  a  charter,  which  might 
be  forfeited  in  case  of  abuse,  made  it  impossible 
for  him  to  become  an  absolute  monarch.  The 
elective  legislature  of  Maryland,  which  in  point 
of  seniority  ranks  third  in  America,  next  after 
Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  was  expressly  pro- 
vided for  in  the  charter.  The  lord  proprietor's 
sovereignty  was  limited  by  this  elected  assembly 
of  freemen,  but  his  dependence  upon  the  king  of 


270     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

England  was  little  more  than  nominal.  In  token 
of  allegiance  and  homage  he  was  to  send  to  the 
king  each  year  two  Indian  arrows.  His  rent  was 
to  be  one  fifth  part  of  all  gold  or  silver  mined  in 
Maryland,  but  as  no  precious  metals  were  found 
there,  this  rent  amounted  to  nothing.  Moreover, 
whenever  it  might  seem  necessary,  the  oath  of 
allegiance  might  be  administered  to  any  of  the  in- 
habitants. Saving  this  formal  recognition  of  his 
overlord,  the  lord  proprietor  was  virtually  king 
in  Maryland.  Laws  passed  by  the  assembly  be- 
came valid  as  soon  as  he  had  signed  them,  and  did 
not  need  to  be  seen  by  the  king.  In  case  the 
assembly  could  not  conveniently  be  brought  to- 
gether in  an  emergency,  he  could  issue  ordinances 
by  himself,  analogous  to  the  orders  of  the  Privy 
Council.  He  could  coin  money  and  grant  titles  of 
nobility,  he  could  create  courts,  appoint  judges, 
and  pardon  criminals.  It  was  moreover  expressly 
stipulated  that  within  the  limits  of  Maryland  no 
taxes  could  be  either  assessed  or  collected  by  any 
British  government.  Finally  the  lord  proprietor- 
ship was  vested  in  Cecilius  Calvert  and  his  heirs, 
and  in  point  of  fact  was  exercised  by  them  with 
some  interruptions  for  five  generations ;  so  that 
the  government  of  colonial  Maryland  was  really 
a  hereditary  constitutional  monarchy. 

Thus  Lord  Baltimore  introduced  into  America 
a  new  and  quite  remarkable  type  of  colonial  gov- 
Ecciesiasti-  ernment.  But  in  the  second  place  his  at- 
ttfePio7drs°f  ternpt  to  inaugurate  a  policy  of  complete 
proprietor,  religious  toleration  was  a  still  more  mem- 
orable departure  from  familiar  methods.  Among 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         271 

the  express  provisions  of  the  charter  there  was 
nothing  that  looked  toward  such  complete  tolera- 
tion. Any  express  toleration  of  Catholics  would 
have  ruined  the  whole  scheme  at  the  start.  The 
words  of  the  charter  were  conveniently  vague.  In 
the  original  charter  of  Avalon  the  lord  proprie- 
tor was  entrusted  with  "  the  patronage  and  ad- 
vowsons  of  all  churches  which,  with  the  increasing 
worship  and  religion  of  Christ  within  the  said 
region,  hereafter  shall  happen  to  be  built ;  together 
with  license  and  faculty  of  erecting  and  founding 
churches,  chapels,  and  places  of  worship,  in  con- 
venient and  suitable  places,  within  the  premises, 
and  of  causing  the  same  to  be  dedicated  and  con- 
secrated according  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of 
England."  This  Avalon  grant  of  1623  was  made 
when  Sir  George  Calvert  was  still  a  member  of 
the  English  church ;  it  empowered  him  to  found 
Anglican  churches,  but  did  not  expressly  prohibit 
him  from  founding  Romanist  or  Nonconformist 
places  of  worship  along  with  the  others  if  he 
should  see  fit.  Now  exactly  the  same  words  were 
repeated  in  the  Maryland  charter,  although  it  was 
generally  known  that  Lord  Baltimore  intended  to 
make  that  colony  an  asylum  for  such  English 
Catholics  as  wished  to  escape  from  their  griev- 
ances at  home.  The  fact  that  no  prohibition  was 
inserted  shows  that  the  king  connived  at  Balti- 
more's scheme,  perhaps  through  sympathy  with 
his  Catholic  queen.  None  of  the  Stuarts  were 
fierce  Protestants,  and  it  is  worth  noting  that  it 
was  at  the  king's  request  that  the  colony  was 
named  Maryland.  Mr.  Gardiner's  opinion  seems 


272     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

well  sustained,  that  "  the  phrases  of  the  charter 
were  intended  to  cover  a  secret  understanding  be- 
tween Baltimore  and  the  king."  1 

Starting  with  such  a  charter,  religious  tolera- 
tion in  Maryland  was  a  happy  product  of  circum- 
stances.    In  view  of  the  regal  powers  wielded  by 
Lord  Baltimore  it  was  not  easy  for  the  Protestant 
settlers  to  oppress  the  Catholics ;  while, 

toleration  in  on  the  Other  hand,  if  the  Catholic  Set- 
Maryland. 

tiers  had  been  allowed  to  annoy  the 
Protestants,  it  would  forthwith  have  raised  such  a 
storm  in  England  as  would  have  overwhelmed  the 
lord  proprietor  and  blasted  his  enterprise.  The 
situation  thus  created  was  improved  to  the  best 
advantage  by  the  strong  common-sense  and  unfail- 
ing tact  of  Cecilius  Calvert.  It  is  not  likely  that 
he  had  arrived  at  such  advanced  views  of  the 
entire  separation  of  church  and  state  as  those 
which  were  set  forth  with  such  luminous  cogency 
by  Roger  Williams,  but  there  was  a  statesmanlike 
instinct  in  him  that  led  him  in  a  similar  direction. 
In  point  of  religious  toleration  Rhode  Island  un- 
questionably holds  the  foremost  place  among  the 
colonies,  while  next  after  it  come  Quaker  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  New  Netherland,  which  for  its  brief 
season  maintained  the  wholesome  Dutch  tradi- 
tions. There  are  some  respects  in  which  Mary- 
land's record  may  vie  with  the  brightest,  but  her 
success  was  not  attained  without  struggles.  We 
shall  presently  have  occasion  to  see  how  curiously 
her  beginnings  were  complicated  with  the  affairs 
of  her  elder  sister  Virginia  and  with  some  phases 
of  the  Puritan  revolution. 

1  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  viii.  179. 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         273 

If  Lord  Baltimore  felt  obliged  himself  to  stay 
in  England,  he  was  able  to  send  excellent 

A  , ,  .    ,  .       First  settle- 

agents  to  America  in  the  persons  or  his  ment  at  st. 

younger  brothers,  Leonard  and  George 
Calvert.  The  former  he  appointed  governor  of 
Maryland.  The  most  important  member  of  the 
council  was  Thomas  Cornwallis,  of  an  ancient  and 
highly  honourable  London  family,  the  same  to 
which  in  later  days  belonged  the  Earl  Cornwallis 
who  surrendered  an  army  to  George  Washington 
at  Yorktown.1  Leonard  Calvert's  ships  were  the 
Ark,  of  300  tons  burthen,  with  its  attendant  pin- 
nace, the  Dove,  of  50  tons ;  and  his  company  com- 
prised 20  "  gentlemen  adventurers  "  with  about 
300  labourers.  So  alarmed  were  London  people 
at  the  expedition  that  it  took  the  ships  a  full 
month  to  get  away  from  the  Thames  River.  All 
kinds  of  rumours  flew  about.  It  was  assumed 
that  all  Catholics  must  be  in  league  with  Spain 
and  that  these  ships  must  be  concerned  in  some 
foul  conspiracy  against  the  English  colonies  in 
America.  At  the  last  moment  a  great  fuss  was 
made  in  the  Star  Chamber,  and  Coke  sent  an 
order  post-haste  to  Admiral  Pennington  command- 
ing the  channel  fleet  to  stop  the  ships  at  Dover. 
The  oath  of  supremacy  was  administered,  and  we 
hear  of  128  persons  taking  it  at  one  time.  It 
is  generally  believed  that  the  majority  of  the  com- 
pany were  Protestants;  the  leaders  were  nearly 
all  Catholics,  including  the  amiable  Jesuit,  Fa- 
ther Andrew  White,  who  has  left  us  in  quaint 
and  very  charming  Latin  a  full  narrative  of  the 

1  NeilTs  Virginia  Carolorum,  p.  99. 


274     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

voyage.1  The  ships  finally  started  on  the  22d 
of  November,  1633,  stopped  for  a  while  in  Jan- 
uary at  Barbadoes,  and  on  the  27th  of  February 
reached  Point  Comfort,  where  a  letter  from  the 
king  ensured  them  courteous  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  Governor  Harvey.  With  a  fresh  stock 
of  supplies  they  sailed  up  Chesapeake  Bay  and 
into  the  broad  Potomac,  and  presently  on  a  little 
wooded  island  which  they  called  St.  Clement's  — 
since  dwindled  to  the  mere  vestige  of  a  sand-bank 
—  they  celebrated  Mass  for  the  first  time  in  Eng- 
lish America  on  the  25th  of  March,  1634. 

On  a  bluff  overlooking  the  deep  and  broad  St. 
*  Mary's  River  the  settlers  found  an  In- 

Relations  -n  • 

with  the  dian  village,  which  they  bought  from  its 
occupants  with  steel  hatchets  and  hoes 
and  pieces  of  cloth.  These  Indians  were  a  tribe  of 
Algonquins,  who  had  been  so  persecuted  by  their 
terrible  Iroquois  neighbours,  the  Susquehannocks, 
that  they  were  already  intending  to  move  away  to 
some  safer  region ;  so  they  welcomed  the  white 
purchasers  and  the  chance  for  buying  steel  hatchets. 
Leonard  Calvert  was  as  scrupulously  just  in  his 
dealings  with  red  men  as  William  Penn  in  later 
days,  and  like  Penn  he  was  exceptionally  favoured 
by  the  circumstances  of  his  Indian  neighbours. 
After  the  Algonquins  had  departed  from  St. 
Mary's,  the  fierce  Susquehannocks  to  the  north- 
ward were  so  hard  pressed  by  their  hostile  kins- 
men of  the  Five  Nations,  that  they  were  only  too 
glad  to  live  on  amicable  terms  with  the  settlers 
of  Maryland.  Thus  one  of  the  most  formidable 

1  White's  Relatio  Itineris,  publ.  by  Maryland  Hist.  Soc. 


THE  PALATINATE 

OF 

MARYLAND 

Original  Charter  Boundary  sliown  thus: . 
Present  Boundary  where  different  from  Original 
Charter  Boundary  shown  thus: 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         275 

difficulties   in  the  way  of  American   colonization 
was  removed  at  the  start. 

At  St.  Mary's,  moreover,  there  was  no  Starving 
Time.  The  land  had  so  long  been  cleared 

IITT  F  •  nii       Prosperity 

by  the  Indians  for  their  own  cornfields  of  the  settle- 
that  Calvert's  settlers  at  once  began 
planting  for  themselves.  Father  White  speaks 
with  approval  of  two  native  dishes  which  the  In- 
dians call  "pone"  and  "hominy,"  and  from  their 
squaws  the  English  women  soon  learned  how  to 
bake  and  fry  these  viands  to  perfection.  In  the 
course  of  the  very  first  autumn  the  Marylanders 
were  able  to  export  a  shipload  of  corn  to  New 
England  in  exchange  for  a  cargo  of  salted  cod- 
fish.1 Cattle  and  swine  were  obtained  from  Vir- 
ginia, and  soon  the  neighbourhood  of  St.  Mary's 
was  covered  with  thrifty  and  smiling  farms.  New 
colonists  came  quite  steadily,  and  presently  from 
St.  Mary's  the  plantations  spread  about  the  shores 
of  the  Potomac  River  and  Chesapeake  Bay.  The 
first  assembly  was  convened  and  the  first  laws 
were  enacted  in  1635,  and  when  Cecilius,  Lord 
Baltimore,  died,  just  forty  years  afterward,  his 
Maryland  had  grown  to  be  a  prosperous  commu- 
nity of  20,000  souls. 

Some  of  the  more  important  details  of  this 
growth  will  form  part  of  our  story.  At  present 
we  have  to  consider  somewhat  more  closely  the 
nature  of  this  palatinate  government,  and  the  mod- 
ifications which  it  underwent  in  its  transfer  from 
England  to  America. 

The  Bishop  of  Durham  was  feudal  landlord  of 

1  Winsor,  Narr.  and  Crit.  Hist.  iii.  526. 


276     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  territory  in  his  bishopric,  and  the  most  con- 
siderable part  of  his  revenue  came  from  rents.1 
Until  1660  he  also  received  a  fluctuating  but  not 
insignificant  income  from  such  feudal  incidents  as 
escheats,  forfeitures,  and  wardships.  The  rents 
and  feudal  dues  were  collected  by  the  bailiffs,  each 
constitution  in  tis  bailiwick,  and  were  by  them  paid 
the^eceiVeV-  over  *°  tne  receiver-general,  who  was 
general.  ^Q  superintendent  of  the  palatinate's 
finances.  As  for  Durham's  share  of  the  national 
taxes,  Parliament  simply  determined  the  amount ; 
the  bishop's  government  decided  how  it  should  be 
raised  and  his  constables  collected  it.  The  only 
taxes  collected  by  the  king's  officers  were  the  cus- 
toms. 

After  1536  the  militia  force  of  Durham,  like 
that  of  other  counties,  was  commanded  by  an 
Lord  lieu-  officer  known  as  lord  lieutenant.  For- 
tenantand  merjy  ^e  command  of  the  militia  and 
the  collecting  and  disbursing  of  revenue 
were  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  high  sheriff, 
who  continued  to  be  nominally  the  superior  officer 
over  the  lord  lieutenant  and  receiver-general,  while 
his  actual  duties  were  restricted,  like  those  of  sher- 
iffs in  other  counties,  to  enforcing  the  decisions  of 
the  courts.  But  whereas  all  other  sheriffs  were 
crown  officers,  the  high  sheriff  of  Durham  was 
accountable  only  to  the  bishop. 

1  There  is  an  excellent  summary  of  the  institutions  of  Durham 
in  Bassett's  "  Constitutional  Beginnings  of  North  Carolina,"  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  xii.  For  fuller  accounts  see  Sur- 
tees,  History  of  the  County  Palatine  of  Durham  ;  also  Surtees  So~ 
tiety  Publications,  vols.  xxxii.,  Ixxxii.,  Ixxxiv. 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.         277 

The  only  officer  of  higher  dignity  than  the  high 
sheriff  was  the  chancellor  of  temporalities,  who 
exercised  a  twofold  function.  He  was 

1-1        t        i  •    F        -    -  11         -IP    Chancellor 

the  bishop  s  chiet  minister  and  head  of  of  tempo- 

i  •    «i  11  •  i     •«    ralities. 

the  civil  government,  and  he  presided 
over  the  bishop's  high  court  of  chancery.  Below 
this  high  tribunal  there  were  two  kinds  of  courts. 
The  one  was  like  the  ordinary  courts  of  quarter 
sessions,  composed  of  justices  of  the  peace,  save 
that  these  justices  were  appointed  by  the  bishop 
and  punished  breaches  not  of  the  king's  peace  but 
of  the  bishop's  peace.  The  other  kind  of  court 
was  one  that  could  be  held  in  any  manor  ^ 
of  the  bishopric.  It  was  the  manorial  hflmote- 
court  or  "  halmote,"  the  most  interesting  of  these 
ancient  institutions  of  Durham.  The  business  of 
the  halmote  courts  was  to  adjust  all  questions 
relating  to  the  tenure  of  land,  rights  or  easements 
in  land,  and  such  other  matters  as  intimately  con- 
cerned the  little  agricultural  community  of  tenants 
of  the  manor.  They  could  also  issue  injunctions 
and  inflict  sundry  penalties.  These  courts  were 
held  by  the  seneschal,  an  officer  charged  ^g 
with  the  general  supervision  of  man-  60neBC}ial- 
ors,  but  all  the  tenants  of  the  manor  in  question 
could  attend  the  halmote,  and  could  speak  and 
vote  there,  so  that  it  was  like  a  town-meeting. 
When  we  add  that  it  could  enact  by-laws,  thus 
combining  legislative  with  judicial  functions,  we 
see  its  ancestry  disclosed.  This  halmote  in  Dur- 
ham was  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  folkmote  or 
primary  assembly  which  our  forefathers  brought 
into  Britain  from  their  earlier  home  in  the  wilds 


278     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

of  northern  Germany.  In  this  assembly  the  peo- 
ple of  Durham  preserved  their  self-government  in 
matters  of  local  concern.  But  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  palatinate  grew  up  seem  to  have 
retarded  the  development  of  representative  gov- 
ernment. There  was  no  shire-mote  in  Durham, 
attended  by  selected  men  from  every  manor  or 
parish  or  township,  as  in  the  other  counties  of 
England.  Instead  of  laws  enacted  by  such  a  re- 
The  bishop's  presentative  body,  there  were  ordinances 
passed  by  the  bishop  in  his  council, 
which  was  composed  of  the  principal  magistrates 
already  mentioned,  and  of  such  noblemen  or  other 
prominent  persons  as  might  choose  to  come  or 
such  as  might  be  invited  by  the  bishop.  It  thus 
resembled  in  miniature  a  witenagemote  or  house 
of  lords.  The  bishops  of  Durham  seem  to  have 
been  in  general  responsive  to  public  opinion  in 
their  little  world,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
people  fared  worse  than  they  would  have  done 
with  a  representative  assembly.  The  bishop  was 
not  an  autocrat,  but  a  member  of  a  great  ecclesi- 
astical body,  and  if  he  made  himself  unpopular 
it  was  quite  possible  to  take  steps  that  would  lead 
to  his  removal. 

The  lack  of  representative  institutions  in  Dur- 
ham,   coupled   with   its    semi-independence,    long 
retarded  its   participation    in   the    work 

National  .          •,-,.•,.  ml  . 

representa-  of  national  legislation.  The  bishop,  of 
course,  sat  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but 
not  until  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  was  this  county 
palatine  represented  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  change  was  inaugurated  by  Cromwell,  under 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        279 

whose  protectorship  the  palatine  privileges  were 
taken  away,  and  Durham,  reduced  to  the  likeness 
of  other  counties,  elected  its  members  of  Parlia- 
ment. In  1660  the  restored  monarchy  undid  this 
change  and  replaced  the  bishop,  although  with 
his  palatinate  privileges  slightly  shorn.  In  1675 
Durham  began  to  be  regularly  represented  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  that  date  was  subsequent 
to  the  founding  of  the  Maryland  palatinate.  At 
the  time  when  Lord  Baltimore's  charter  was 
issued,  the  bonds  of  connection  between  Durham 
and  the  rest  of  England  were  three :  1.  the  bishop 
was  a  tenant  in  canite  of  the  crown,  be- 

Li  nutations 

sides  being;  an  officer  of  the  Church  and  upon 

autonomy. 

a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords  ;  2.  the 
county  regularly  paid  its  share  of  the  national 
taxes;  and  3.  cases  in  litigation  between  the 
bishop  and  his  subjects  could  be  appealed  to  the 
Court  of  Exchequer  in  London.  Saving  these 
important  limitations,  Durham  was  independent. 
The  only  way  in  which  the  king  could  act  within 
its  limits  was  by  addressing  the  bishop,  who  by 
way  of  .climax  to  his  many  attributes  of  sover- 
eignty was  endowed  with  the  powers  of  coining 
money,  chartering  towns,  and  exercising  admiralty 
jurisdiction  over  his  seacoast. 

As  I  have  already  observed  it  was  natural  that 
in  founding  new  governments  in  America,  this 
familiar  example  of  the  Durham  palati- 

*  The  palati- 

nate should  be  made  to  serve  as  a  model.   »»<*  type  in 

T  •  p    f  -\r  America. 

In  point  of  fact  not  only  Maryland,  but 

every  colony  afterwards  founded,  except  in  New 

England,  was  at  first  a  palatinate,  with  either  a 


280     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

single  lord  proprietor  or  a  board  of  proprietors  at 
its  head.  Of  the  four  colonies  older  than  Mary- 
land, three  —  English  Virginia  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  Dutch  New  Netherland  —  were  founded 
through  the  instrumentality  of  charters  granted  to 
joint-stock  companies,  organized  really  or  ostensi- 
bly for  commercial  purposes ;  one,  Plymouth,  was 
founded  by  the  people  and  ignored  by  the  crown 
until  finally  suppressed  by  it.  Of  the  four  New 
England  colonies  younger  than  Maryland,  all  were 
founded  by  the  people  themselves,  one  of  them, 
New  Haven,  was  soon  suppressed,  another,  New 
Hampshire,  was  turned  into  a  royal  province,  the 
other  two,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  were 
for  the  most  part  let  alone.  The  governments  of 
all  the  other  colonies  began  as  proprietary  govern- 
ments. This  was  the  case  with  New  York  and  the 
two  Jerseys  after  the  English  conquest  of  New 
Netherland;  it  was  the  case  with  Pennsylvania 
and  Delaware,  with  the  two  Carolinas,  and  with 
Georgia.  One  and  all  of  these  were  variations 
upon  the  theme  first  adopted  in  the  founding  of 
Maryland.  All  were  based  upon  the  palatinate 
principle,  with  divers  modifications  suggested  by 
experience  as  likely  to  be  more  acceptable  to  the 
proprietors  or  to  the  crown.  And  just  as  the 
crown,  for  purposes  of  its  own  and  without  regard 
to  the  wishes  of  the  people,  changed  the  govern- 
ments of  Virginia  and  New  Hampshire  and  extin- 
guished those  of  New  Haven  and  Plymouth;  so 
in  nearly  every  case  we  find  the  people  becoming 
so  dissatisfied  with  the  proprietary  governments 
that  one  after  another  they  are  overturned  and  the 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        281 

palatinates  become  transformed  into  royal  pro- 
vinces. We  shall,  therefore,  find  it  profitable  to 
trace  the  history  of  the  palatinate  principle  in 
America  through  its  initial  theme  and  its  subse- 
quent variations. 

That  initial  theme  was  mainly  an  echo  of  the 
Old  World  music,  but  the  differences  were  not 
without  importance.  In  administrative  gimnaritte8 
machinery  there  was  a  strong  resem-  £?urtTmand 
blance  between  Maryland  and  Durham.  Jj£r^d: 
The  governor  of  Maryland  was  Lord  ernor' 
Baltimore's  chief  minister,  the  head  of  the  civil 
administration  of  the  colony.  He  also  presided 
over  its  court  of  chancery,  and  in  this  double 
capacity  he  resembled  the  chancellor  of  temporal- 
ities. But,  as  befitted  the  head  of  a  community 
planted  in  a  hostile  wilderness,  he  added  to  these 
functions  those  of  the  lord  lieutenant  and  was 
commander-in-chief  of  the  militia.  Laws  passed 
by  the  assembly  required  his  signature  to  make 
them  valid,  and  thus  he  possessed  the  power  of 
veto ;  but  he  could  not  assent  to  a  law  repealing 
any  law  to  which  the  lord  proprietor  had  as- 
sented. Such  matters  had  to  be  referred  to  the 
lord  proprietor,  whose  prerogatives  were  jealously 
guarded,  while  the  extensive  powers  accorded  to 
the  governor  were  such  as  convenience  dictated 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  lord  proprietor  was 
absent  in  England.  An  instance  of  the  principle 
and  its  limits  is  furnished  by  the  governor's  par- 
doning power,  which  extended  to  all  offences 
except  treason.1 

1  For  an  account  of  the  Maryland  constitution,  see  Sparks, 


282     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

The  personage  next  in  importance  to  the  gov- 
ernor was  the  secretary,  who  as  receiver 

Secretary: 

surveyor-       and  disburscr  of  revenues  resembled  the 

general.  . 

receiver  -  general  ot  Durham,  but  to 
these  functions  he  added  those  of  recorder  and 
judge  of  probate,  and  sometimes  also  those  of 
attorney  -  general.  Next  came  the  surveyor  -  gen- 
eral, whose  functions  in  determining  metes  and 
bounds  and  in  supervising  manorial  affairs,  resem- 
bled those  of  the  Durham  seneschal.  Then  there 
was  a  lieutenant  commander  of  militia  known  as 
Mugter  master-general  of  the  muster.  In  each 
master-gen-  counf;y  there  was  a  sheriff,  who,  in  addi- 
tion to  such  functions  as  we  are  familiar 
with,  collected  all  taxes,  held  all  elections,  and 
made  the  returns.  These  four  officers  —  the  sec- 
retary, surveyor-general,  muster  master-general, 
and  sheriff  —  were  paid  by  fees,  the  amount  of 
which  was  determined  by  the  assembly,  which 
thus  exercised  some  control  over  them;  but  the 
governor  received  a  salary  from  the  lord  proprie- 
tor, and  was  to  that  extent  independent  of  the 
legislature. 

Of   courts   there  was  one  in  each  county,  but 

besides  this  a  considerable  number  of  manors  were 

created,  and  each  manor  had  its  court  baron  and 

court  leet  for  the   transaction   of   local 

business.      Small   civil    cases    involving 

less  than  the  worth  of  1,200   pounds  of  tobacco, 

and  criminal  cases  not  involving  the  death  penalty, 

were  tried  in  the  county  courts.    Above  these  was 

"  Causes  of  the  Maryland  Revolution  of  1689,"  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Studies,  vol.  xiv. 


*THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        283 

the  provincial  court,  which  dealt  with  common 
law,  chancery,  or  admiralty,  as  the  case  might  be. 
The  judges  of  this  court  were  all  members  of  the 
council,  to  which  the  secretary  jand  other  chief  ex- 
ecutive officers  belonged,  while  the  governor  pre- 
sided alike  over  the  provincial  court  and  over  the 
council.  Appeals  could  be  taken  from  the  pro- 
vincial court  to  the  council  sitting  as  the  upper 
house  in  the  assembly,  after  the  analogy  of  the 
appellate  jurisdiction  of  the  House  of  Lords ;  but 
this  virtually  meant  that  a  case  once  decided  could 
be  tried  over  again  by  the  same  judges  with  a  few 
colleagues  added. 

The  assembly,  at  the  mention  of  which  we  have 
thus  arrived,  was  the  principal  point  of  difference 
between  the  palatinate  of  Maryland  and  ^  primary 
that  of  Durham.  The  governor  of  Mary-  """"My- 
land,  like  the  bishop  of  Durham,  had  his  council, 
consisting  solely,  as  the  other  consisted  chiefly,  of 
high  officials ;  but  in  Maryland  there  was  popular 
representation,  while  in  Durham  there  was  not. 
At  first,  however,  the  popular  house  was  not  a 
representative  but  a  primary  assembly,  and  its 
sittings  were  not  separate  from  those  of  the  coun- 
cil. In  the  first  assembly,  which  met  at  St. 
Mary's  in  February,  1635,  all  the  freemen,  or  all 
who  chose  to  come,  were  gathered  in  the  same 
room  with  Leonard  Calvert  and  his  council.  They 
drew  up  a  body  of  laws  and  sent  it  to  England  for 
the  lord  proprietor's  assent,  which  was  refused. 
The  ground  of  the  refusal  was  far  more  than  the 
mere  technicality  which  on  a  hasty  glance  it 
might  seem  to  be.  Cecilius  refused  because  the 


284     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

charter  gave  the  lord  proprietor  the  power  of 
making  laws  with  the  assent  of  the  freemen,  but 
did  not  give  such  power  to  the  freemen  with  the 
initiative  in  assent  of  the  lord  proprietor.  In  other 
legislation.  Word8?  the  initiative  in  legislation  must 
always  come  from  above,  not  from  below.  Obvi- 
ously there  could  be  no  higher  authority  than 
Cecilius  as  to  what  the  charter  really  intended. 
But  the  assembly  of  Maryland  insisted  upon  the 
right  of  initiating  legislation,  and  Cecilius  was 
wise  enough  to  yield  the  point  gracefully.  He 
consented,  in  view  of  the  length  of  time  required 
for  crossing  the  ocean,  that  laws  enacted  by  the 
assembly  should  at  once  become  operative  and 
so  remain  unless  vetoed  by  him.  But  he  reserved 
to  himself  the  right  of  veto  without  limitation  in 
time.  In  other  words,  he  could  at  any  time  annul 
a  law,  and  this  prerogative  was  one  that  might 
become  dangerous. 

In  1638  the  primary  assembly  was  abandoned 

as  cumbrous.     For  purposes  of  the  military  levy 

the  province  was  divided  into  hundreds, 

The  repre-  x  . 

sentative       and  each  hundred  sent  a  representative 

assembly! 

to  the  assembly  at  St.  Mary's.  At  a 
later  date  the  county  came  to  be  the  basis  of 
representation,  as  in  Virginia.  For  some  time  the 
representatives  sat  with  the  council,  as  at  first 
in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia ;  but  in  1650  the 
representatives  began  to  sit  as  a  lower  house, 
while  the  council  formed  an  upper  house.  As 
there  was  a  tendency,  which  went  on  increasing, 
for  the  highest  offices  to  be  filled  by  Calverts  and 
their  kinsmen,  the  conditions  were  soon  at  hand 


THE  MARYLAND  PALATINATE.        285 

for  an  interesting  constitutional  struggle  between 
the  two  houses.  It  was  to  be  seen  whether  the 
government  was  to  be  administered  for  the  Cal- 
verts  or  for  the  people,  and  to  the  story  of  this 
struggle  we  shall  presently  come. 

As  a  result  of  our  survey  it  appears  that  Lord 
Baltimore  occupied  a  far  more  independent  posi- 
tion than  any  bishop  of  Durham.  Not 

i  i_  L  £         •          '  -i  i        ^f1  P°wer 

only  was  he  exempt  trom  imperial  tax-  of  Lord 

...  Baltimore. 

ation,  but  in  case  of  a  controversy  be- 
tween himself  and  his  subjects  no  appeal  could  be 
taken  to  any  British  court.  His  power  seemed  to 
approach  more  nearly  to  despotism  than  that  of 
any  king  of  England,  save  perhaps  Henry  VIII. 
The  one  qualifying  feature  was  the  representative 
assembly,  the  effects  of  which  time  was  to  show  in 
unsuspected  ways.  From  various  circumstances 
mentioned  in  the  course  of  the  present  chapter 
there  resulted  a  strange  series  of  adventures,  which 
will  next  claim  our  attention. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LEAH  AND  RACHEL. 

WE  have  already  had  occasion  to  observe  that, 
while  from  the  outset  Lord  Baltimore's  enterprise 
found  many  enemies  in  England,  it  was  at  the 
same  time  regarded  with  no  friendly  feelings  in 
William  Virginia.  We  have  seen  the  Virginians 
and hupro-  sending  to  London  their  secretary  of 
state,  William  Claiborne,  to  obstruct  and 
thwart  the  Calverts  in  their  attempt  to  obtain  a 
grant  of  territory  in  America.  For  Claiborne  there 
were  interests  of  his  own  involved,  besides  those  of 
the  colony  which  he  represented.  This  William 
Claiborne,  younger  son  of  an  ancient  and  honour- 
able family  in  Westmoreland,  had  come  to  Vir- 
ginia in  1621  and  prospered  greatly,  acquiring 
large  estates  and  winning  the  respect  and  confi- 
dence of  his  fellow  planters.  By  1627  he  had 
begun  to  engage  in  trade  with  the  natives  along 
the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay  and  the  Potomac 
and  Susquehanna  rivers.  Such  traffic,  if  well 
managed,  was  lucrative,  since  with  steel  knives 
and  hatchets,  or  with  ribbons  and  beads,  one  could 
buy  furs  which  would  fetch  high  prices  in  England. 
To  the  enterprising  Claiborne  it  seemed  worth 
while  to  extend  this  trade  far  to  the  north.  His 
speculative  vision  took  in  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  287 

son  rivers  and  even  included  New  England  and 
Nova  Scotia.  So  he  entered  into  an  arrangement 
with  a  firm  of  London  merchants,  Clobery  &  Com- 
pany, to  supply  them  with  furs  and  other  such 
eligible  commodities  as  might  be  obtained  from  the 
Indians,  and  in  1631  he  obtained  a  royal  license 
for  trading  in  any  and  all  parts  of  North  America 
not  already  preempted  by  monopolies.  This  was 
done  while  he  was  in  London  opposing  Lord  Balti- 
more. The  place  most  prominently  mentioned  in 
the  license  was  Nova  Scotia,  and  it  was  obtained 
under  the  seal  of  Scotland,  from  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  Scotland,  Sir  William  Alexander,  to 
whom  Nova  Scotia  had  some  time  before  been 
granted.  On  returning  to  Virginia,  where  Sir 
John  Harvey  had  lately  superseded  the  convivial 
Dr.  Pott  as  governor,  Claiborne  obtained  a  further 
license  to  trade  with  any  of  the  English  colonies 
and  with  the  Dutch  on  Henry  Hudson's  river. 

Armed  with  these  powers,  Claiborne  proceeded 
to  make  a  settlement  upon  an  island  which  he  had 
already,  before  his  visit  to  London,  selected  for  a 
trading  post.  It  was  Kent  Island,  far  up 

.  e  £  Ji     Kent  Island 

in  Chesapeake  -t>ay,  almost  as  tar  north  occupied  by 

,       ,         _  -r,.  Claiborne. 

as  the  mouth  ot  the  .ratapsco  Kiver. 
Here  dwellings  were  built,  and  mills  for  grinding 
corn,  while  gardens  were  laid  out,  and  orchards 
planted,  and  farms  were  stocked  with  cattle.1  A 
clergyman  was  duly  appointed,  to  minister  to  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  little  settlement,  and  in  the 
next  year,  1632,  it  was  represented  in  the  House 

1  See  Latane",  "  Early  Relations  between  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia,"  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  vol.  xiii. 


288     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

of  Burgesses  by  Captain  Nicholas  Martian,  a 
patentee  of  the  land  where  Yorktown  now  stands. 
When  in  that  same  year  the  news  of  the  charter 
granted  to  Lord  Baltimore  arrived  in  Virginia,  it 
was  greeted  with  indignation.  No  doubt  there  was 
plenty  of  elbow-room  between  the  old  colony  and 
the  land  assigned  to  the  new-comers,  but  the  ex- 
ample of  Claiborne  shows  what  far-reaching  plans 
conflicting  could  be  cherished  down  on  James  River. 


grants.  iji^  Virginlans  had  received  a  princely 
territory,  and  did  not  like  to  see  it  arbitrarily 
curtailed.  There  was  no  telling  where  that  sort 
of  thing  might  end.  According  to  the  charter 
of  1609,  Virginia  extended  200  miles  northward 
from  Old  Point  Comfort,1  or  about  as  far  north  as 
the  site  of  Chester  in  Pennsylvania  ;  which  would 
have  left  no  room  for  Maryland  or  Delaware.  That 
charter  had  indeed  been  annulled  in  1624,  but  both 
James  I.  and  Charles  I.  had  expressly  declared  that 
the  annulling  of  the  charter  simply  abolished  the 
sovereignty  that  had  been  accorded  to  the  Virginia 
Company,  and  did  not  infringe  or  diminish  the  ter- 
ritorial rights  of  the  colony.  Undoubtedly  the 
grant  to  the  Cal  verts  was  one  of  the  numerous 
instances  in  early  American  history  in  which  the 
Stuart  kings  gave  away  the  same  thing  to  different 
parties.  Or  perhaps  we  might  better  say  that  they 
made  grants  without  duly  heeding  how  one  might 
overlap  and  encroach  upon  another.  This  was 
partly  the  result  of  carelessness,  partly  of  igno- 
rance and  haziness  of  mind  ;  flagrant  examples  of 
it  were  the  grants  to  Robert  Gorges  in  Massachu- 
1  See  above,  p.  145. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  289 

setts  and  to  Samuel  Gorton  in  Rhode  Island.  No 
serious  harm  has  come  of  this  recklessness,  but  it 
was  the  cause  of  much  bickering  in  the  early  days, 
echoes  of  which  may  still  be  heard  in  silly  pouts 
and  sneers  between  the  grown-up  children  of  divers 
neighbour  states.  As  regards  the  grant  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  a  protest  from  Virginia  was  not  only 
natural  but  as  inevitable  as  sunrise.  It  was  dis- 
cussed in  the  Star  Chamber  in  July,  1633,  and  the 
decision  was  not  to  disturb  Lord  Baltimore's  char- 
ter ;  the  Virginians  might,  if  they  liked,  bring  suit 
against  him  in  the  ordinary  course  of  law.  From 
this  decision  came  many  heart-burnings  between 
Leah  and  her  younger  sister  Rachel,  as  a  quaint 
old  pamphleteer  calls  Virginia  and  Maryland.1 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  all  the  circumstances,  it  is 
difficult  to  avoid  seeing  in  Claiborne's  occupation 
of  Kent  Island  a  strategic  move.  Considered  as 
such,  it  was  bold  and  not  ill-judged.  With  his 
far-reaching  schemes  the  Susquehanna  River  was 
a  highway  which  would  enable  him  to  compete  with 
the  Dutch  for  the  northwestern  fur  trade.  By 
establishing  himself  on  Kent  Island  he  might  com- 
mand the  approach  to  that  highway.  The  maxim 
that  actual  possession  is  nine  points  in  the  law  was 
in  his  favour.  If  the  Star  Chamber  had  decided 
to  uphold  Virginia's  wholesale  claim  to  the  terri- 
tory granted  her  in  1609,  Claiborne  would  have 
been  master  of  the  situation.  Even  with  ciaibome's 
the  decision  as  rendered,  his  own  case  re818tance- 
was  far  from  hopeless.  In  the  autumn  of  1633  he 

1  Hammond,  Leah  and  Rachel,  or,  The  Two  Fruitfull  Sisters, 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  1656. 


290     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

petitioned  the  king  to  protect  his  interests  and 
those  of  Virginia  in  Kent  Island.  He  contended 
that  Baltimore's  charter  gave  jurisdiction  only 
over  territory  unsettled  and  unimproved,  —  hac- 
tenus  in  culta, — whereas  Kent  Island  had  been 
settled  as  a  part  of  Virginia  and  heavy  expenses 
incurred  there  before  that  charter  had  been  issued. 
In  sending  this  petition  it  was  hoped  that  by  reso- 
lutely keeping  hold  upon  the  strategic  point  it 
might  be  possible  to  make  Lord  Baltimore  recon- 
sider his  plans  and  take  his  settlers  to  some  other 
region  than  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  But 
this  hope  was  dashed  in  February,  1634,  when 
Leonard  Calvert  with  the  first  party  of  settlers 
arrived  in  those  waters.  Claiborne's  petition  had 
not  yet  been  answered,  but  Lord  Balti- 

Lord  Balti-  J  .  '    . 

roore's  in-     more  s  instructions  to  his  brother  were 

Btructioim.  .  .    . 

conceived  in  a  conciliatory  spirit.  Leon- 
ard was  to  see  Claiborne  and  offer  him  all  the  aid 
in  his  power  toward  building  up  the  new  settlement 
on  Kent  Island,  at  the  same  time  reminding  him 
that  the  place  was  in  Baltimore's  territory  and  not 
a  part  of  Virginia.  In  other  words,  Claiborue  was 
welcome  to  the  property,  only  he  must  hold  it  as  a 
tenant  of  the  lord  proprietor  of  Maryland,  not  as 
a  tenant  of  the  king  in  Virginia.  While  the  Ark 
and  the  Dove  were  halting  at  anchor  off  Old  Point 
Comfort,  and  while  Leonard  Calvert  was  ashore 
exchanging  courtesies  with  Governor  Harvey,  he 
The  Virginia  communicated  this  message  to  Claiborne. 
po"tnsCcCp"  At  the  next  meeting  of  the  council, 

Claiborne  asked  his  fellow-councillors 
what  he  should  do  in  the  matter.  In  reply  they 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  291 

wondered  that  he  should  ask  such  a  question.  Was 
not  the  case  perfectly  clear  ?  Was  there  any  rea- 
son why  they  should  surrender  Kent  Island,  more 
than  any  other  part  of  Virginia?  No,  they  would 
keep  it  until  his  Majesty's  pleasure  should  be 
known,  and  meanwhile  they  would  treat  the  Mary- 
land company  civilly  and  expected  to  be  so  treated 
by  them.  Behind  this  answer  there  was  much  bad 
feeling.  Not  only  were  the  Virginians  angry  at 
the  curtailment  of  their  domains,  not  only  were 
they  alarmed  as  well  as  angry  at  the  arrival  of 
Papists  in  their  neighbourhood,  but  they  were 
greatly  disgusted  because  Lord  Baltimore's  charter 
gave  him  far  more  extensive  trading  privileges  than 
they  possessed.  Calvert's  message  to  Claiborne 
had  signified  that  before  trading  any  further  in  the 
upper  parts  of  Chesapeake  Bay  he  must  obtain  a 
license  from  Maryland.  Assured  now  of  support 
from  Virginia,  Claiborne  returned  an  answer  in 
which  he  refused  in  any  way  to  admit  Lord  Balti- 
more's sovereignty. 

Leonard's  instructions  had  been  in  case  of  such 
a  refusal  not  to  molest  Claiborne  for  at  least  a 
year.  But  soon  complications  arose.  The  settlers 
at  St.  Mary's  observed  indications  of 

i  „  Complica- 

distrust   or   hostility  on  the   part   of  a  tionswith 

the 


.  »  i  .  .11 

neighbouring  Algonquin  tribe,  known  as 
the  Patuxents;  so  they  appealed  to  one  Cap- 
tain Henry  Fleete,  who  understood  the  Algonquin 
language,  to  learn  what  was  the  matter.  This 
Captain  Fleete  wished  to  supplant  Claiborne  in 
the  fur  trade  and  may  have  welcomed  a  chance 
of  discrediting  him  with  the  Marylanders.  At  all 


292     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

events,  he  reported  that  the  Indians  had  been  told 
that  the  Marylanders  were  not  Englishmen  but 
Spaniards,  and  for  this  calumny,  which  might  have 
led  to  the  massacre  of  the  new-comers,  he  under- 
took to  throw  the  blame  upon  Claiborne.  In  the 
substance  of  this  story  there  is  a  strong  appear- 
ance of  truth.  On  the  Virginia  coast  in  those  days 
common  parlance  was  not  nice  as  to  discriminating 
between  Papists  of  any  kind  and  Spaniards,  and 
one  ean  easily  see  how  from  ordinary  gossip  the 
Indians  may  have  got  their  notion.  There  is  no 
reason  for  casting  atrocious  imputations  upon  Clai- 
borne, who  was  examined  in  June,  1634,  by  a  joint 
commission  of  Virginians  and  Marylanders,  and 
completely  exonerated.  But  before  the  news  of 
this  verdict  reached  London,  the  charge  that  Clai- 
borne was  intriguing  with  the  Indians  had  been 
carried  to  Lord  Baltimore  and  evidently  alarmed 
him.  Convinced  that  forbearance  had  ceased  to 
be  a  virtue,  he  sent  word  to  his  brother  to  seize 
Kent  Island,  arrest  Claiborne,  and  hold  him  pris- 
oner until  further  instructions. 

This  was  in  September,  1634.  News  of  the 
message  came  to  the  ears  of  Claiborne's  London 
partners,  Clobery  &  Company,  and  they  petitioned 
the  king  for  protection  in  the  possession  of  their 
island.  Charles  accordingly  instructed  Lord  Bal- 
timore not  to  molest  Claiborne  and  his  people, 
and  he  sent  a  letter  to  the  governor  and  council  of 
Virginia,  in  which  he  declared  that  the 

Reprisals  . 

andskir-       true  intention  of   the  charter  which   he 

iiiishes.  _         . 

had  granted  to  Baltimore  would  not  jus- 
tify that  nobleman  in  any  interference  with  Kent 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  293 

Island  and  its  settlers.  So  the  winter  wore  away 
without  incident,  but  early  in  April,  1635,  one  of 
Claiborne's  ships,  commanded  by  one  Thomas 
Smith,  was  seized  in  the  Patuxent  River  by  Cap- 
tain Fleete  ;  she  was  condemned  for  trading  with- 
out a  license,  and  was  confiscated  and  sold  with 
all  her  cargo.  Claiborne  then  sent  out  an  armed 
sloop,  the  Cockatrice,  to  make  reprisals  upon 
Maryland  shipping ;  but  Calvert  was  wide  awake 
and  sent  Cornwallis  with  a  stronger  force  of  two 
armed  pinnaces,  which  overtook  the  Cockatrice  in 
Pocomoke  River  and  captured  her  after  a  brisk 
skirmish  in  which  half  a  dozen-  men  were  killed 
and  more  wounded.  That  was  on  April  23,  and 
on  May  10  there  was  another  fight  in  the  har- 
bour of  Great  Wighcocomoco,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Pocomoke,  in  which  Thomas  Smith  commanded 
for  Claiborne  and  defeated  the  Marylanders  with 
more  bloodshed. 

In  the   midst  of   these   unseemly  quarrels   the 
kingdom  of  Virginia  witnessed  something  like  a 
revolution.    We  have  already  had  occasion  to  men- 
tion  Sir  John   Harvey,  the  governor  who  came 
in  March,  1630,  after  the  brief  administration  of 
that  versatile  practitioner,  Dr.  John  Pott.     Har- 
vey was  not  long  in  getting  into  trouble,   complaints 
It  was  noticed  at  first  that  his  manners  G^^O,. 
were  intolerably  rude.    He  strutted  about  Harvey- 
Jamestown  as  if  he  were  on  a  quarter  deck,  and 
treated  the  august  members  of  the  council  with 
as  little  ceremony  as  if  they  had  been  boot-blacks. 
On  his  own  confession  he  once  assaulted  a  coun- 
cillor and  knocked  out  some  of  his  teeth  "  with  a 


294     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

cudgel." 1  But  it  presently  appeared  that  arro- 
gance was  not  his  worst  fault.  He  was  too  fond 
of  money,  and  not  particular  as  to  how  it  came  to 
him.  He  had  a  right  to  make  grants  of  land  to 
settlers  for  a  consideration  to  be  paid  into  the 
public  treasury;  it  was  charged  against  him  that 
part  of  the  consideration  found  its  way  into  his 
own  pockets.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  it  happened, 
after  the  fashion  of  his  royal  master,  that  some  of 
the  lands  which  he  granted  were  already  private 
property.  Besides  this,  he  seems  to  have  under- 
taken to  draw  up  laws  and  proclaim  them  of  his 
own  authority  without  submitting  them  to  the  as- 
sembly ;  he  refused  to  render  an  account  of  the 
ways  in  which  he  spent  the  public  money ;  he  had 
excessive  fees  charged,  multiplied  the  number  of 
fines  beyond  all  reason,  and  took  the  proceeds  or 
a  part  of  them  for  his  private  use  and  behoof. 
In  short,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  second  and 
more  vulgar  Argall. 

Five  years  of  this  sort  of  thing  had  driven  the 
men  of  Virginia  to  the  last  pitch  of  desperation, 
when  the  Claiborne  imbroglio  brought  on  a  crisis. 
In  obedience  to  the  king's  instructions,  Harvey 
showed  such  favour  as  he  could  to  the  Maryland 
settlers,  and  thus  made  himself  the  more  fiercely 
hated  in  Virginia.  The  Kent  Island  question  was 
Rage  of  one  that  bred  dissension  in  families,  sep- 
Ieata8tans  arated  bosom  friends,  and  sowed  seeds 
Maryland.  Q£  Distrust  and  suspicion  far  and  wide. 
To  speak  well  of  Maryland  was  accounted  little 
less  than  a  crime.  "  Sell  cattle  to  Maryland  I " 

1  Neill,  Virginia  Carolorum,  p.  126. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  295 

exclaimed  the  wrathful  planters,  "  better  knock 
them  on  the  head  !  "  From  pious  people  this  near 
approach  of  the  Scarlet  Woman  drew  forth  strong 
words.  We  are  told  that  one  day  Captain  Samuel 
Mathews,  that  brave  gentleman  and  decorous  Pu- 
ritan, on  reading  a  letter  from  England,  dashed  his 
hat  upon  the  ground  and  stamped  in  fury,  shout- 
ing "  A  pox  upon  Maryland  !  "  l 

In  such  a  state  of  things  we  can  imagine  what  a 
storm  was  raised  when  Governor  Harvey  removed 
from  office  the  able  and  popular  secretary  of  state, 
William  Claiborne,  and  appointed  one  Richard 
Kemp  in  his  place.  One  lively  gleam  of  vituper- 
ation lights  up  the  grave  pages  of  the  colonial  re- 
cords, when  Rev.  Anthony  Panton  called  An  angry 
Mr.  Kemp  a  "  jackanapes,"  and  told  him  faxaon- 
that  he  was  "  unfit  for  the  place  of  secretary,"  and 
that  "  his  hair-lock  was  tied  up  with  ribbon  as 
old  as  St.  Paul's."  We  shall  hereafter  see  how 
the  outraged  secretary  nursed  his  wrath ;  what  he 
might  have  done  in  its  freshness  was  prevented 
by  a  sudden  revolution.  The  assembly  drew  up 
a  protest  against  the  king's  attempts  at  monopo- 
lizing the  tobacco  trade,  and  Harvey  refused  to 
transmit  the  protest  to  England.  About  the  same 
time  the  news  arrived  of  the  seizing  of  Claiborne's 
ship  in  Maryland  waters.  On  the  petition  of 
many  of  the  people,  a  meeting  of  the  assembly 
was  called  for  May  7,  to  receive  complaints  against 
Sir  John  Harvey.2  In  the  mean  time,  on  April 
27,  an  indignation  meeting  was  held  at  the  house 

1  Maryland  Archives  —  Council  Proceedings,  i.  29. 

2  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  i.  223. 


296     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

of  William  Warren,  in  York,  where  the  principal 
speakers  were  Nicholas  Martian,  for- 
at  warren's  merly  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
for  Kent  Island,  Francis  Pott,  the  doc- 
tor's brother,  and  William  English,  sheriff  of 
York  County.  The  house  where  this  meeting  was 
held  in  1635  seems  to  have  stood  on  or  near  the 
site  of  the  house  afterward  owned  by  Augustine 
Moore,  where  in  1781  the  surrender  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  was  arranged  ;  and  by  a  curious  coincidence 
the  speaker  Nicholas  Martian  was  a  direct  ances- 
tor both  of  George  Washington,  who  commanded 
the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  of  Thomas 
Nelson,  who  commanded  the  forces  of  Virginia,  on 
that  memorable  occasion.1 

Next  morning  Martian,  Pott,  and  English  were 
arrested,  and  when  they  asked  the  reason  why, 
Governor  Harvey  politely  told  them  that  they 
"  should  know  at  the  gallows."  When  the  council 
met,  the  wrathful  governor  strode  up  and  down 
the  room,  demanding  that  the  prisoners  be  in- 
Bcene  in  the  stantly  put  to  death  by  martial  law,  but 
the  council  insisted  that  no  harm  should 
come  to  them  without  a  regular  trial.  Then  Har- 
vey with  a  baleful  frown  put  the  question  after  the 

1  "Memories  of  Yorktown,"  address  by  Lyon  Gardiner  Tyler, 
President  of  William  and  Mary  College,  Richmond  Times,  Nov. 
25,  1894.  The  original  letter  of  Captain  Mathews  and  tlie  decla- 
ration of  Sir  John  Harvey  concerning  the  "  mutiny  of  1635  "  are 
printed  in  the  Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography,  i. 
416—430.  In  my  brief  account  I  have  tried  to  reconcile  some* 
apparent  inconsistencies  in  the  various  statements  with  regard- 
to  time.  Some  accounts  seem  to  extend  over  three  or  four  days 
'the  events  which  more  probably  occurred  on  the  27th  and  28th. 
The  point  is  of  no  importance. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  297 

manner  of  Richard  III.,  "  What  do  they  deserve 
that  have  gone  about  to  dissuade  the  people  from 
their  obedience  to  his  Majesty's  substitute  ?  "  A 
young  member,  George  Menefie,  replied  with 
adroit  sarcasm  that  he  was  too  young  a  lawyer  to 
be  ready  with  "  a  suddain  opinion  "  upon  such  a 
question.  Turning  savagely  upon  him,  Sir  John 
asked  what  all  the  fuss  was  about.  "  Because 
of  the  detaining  of  the  assembly's  protest,"  said 
Menefie.  Then  the  governor  struck  Menefie  heav- 
ily upon  the  shoulder  and  exclaimed,  "I  arrest 
you  on  suspicion  of  treason,"  whereupon  Captain 
John  Utie,  roughly  seizing  the  governor,  answered, 
"  And  we  the  like  to  you,  sir !  "  Samuel  Mathews 
threw  his  arms  about  Harvey  and  forced  him  down 
into  a  chair,  while  that  connoisseur  in  beverages, 
Dr.  Pott,  waved  his  hand  at  the  window,  and  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye  the  house  was  surrounded 
by  armed  men.  Mathews  then  told  the  helpless 
governor  that  he  must  go  to  London  to  answer 
charges  that  would  be  brought  against  him.  In 
vain  did  Harvey  argue  and  storm.  The  sequel 
may  best  be  told  in  the  words  of  the  terse  and 
bleak  entry  in  the  colonial  records :  "  On  Harvey 
the  28th  of  April,  1635,  Sir  John  Har-  deposed- 
vey  thrust  out  of  his  government ;  and  Capt.  John 
West  acts  as  governor  till  the  king's  pleasure 
known."  When  the  assembly  met  on  May  7, 
these  proceedings  of  the  council  were  approved, 
and  commissioners  were  appointed  to  go  to  Lon- 
don and  lay  their  complaints  before  the  king. 
The  indignant  Harvey  went  by  the  same  ship,  in 
the  custody  of  his  quondam  prisoner,  Francis  Pott, 


298     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

whom  he  had  been  so  anxious  to  hang  without 
ceremony. 

Such  were  the  incidents  of  the  ever  memorable 
"thrusting  out  of  Sir  John  Harvey,"  the  first 
revolutionary  scene  that  was  acted  in  English 
America.  When  King  Charles  heard  the  story 
he  did  not  feel  quite  so  much  fondness  for  his 
trusty  and  well-beloved  burgesses  as  when  he  had 
been  seeking  commercial  favours  from  them.  He 
would  not  receive  their  commissioners  or  hear  a 
word  on  their  side  of  the  case,  and  he  swore  that 
Harvey'a  Sir  John  Harvey  should  straightway  go 
back  to  Virginia  as  governor,  even  were 
it  only  for  one  day.  But  when  it  came  to  act- 
ing, Charles  was  not  quite  so  bold  as  his  words. 
Harvey  did  not  return  until  nearly  two  years  had 
elapsed.1  Then  it  was  the  turn  of  the  rebellious 
councillors  —  Utie,  Mathews,  West,  Menefie,  and 
Dr.  Pott  —  to  go  to  London  and  defend  them- 
selves, while  Harvey  wreaked  mean-spirited  ven- 
geances on  his  enemies.  The  day  of  reckoning  had 
come  for  Anthony  Panton,  the  minister  who  had 
called  Mr.  Secretary  Kemp  a  "jackanapes,"  and 
had,  moreover,  as  it  seemed,  spoken  irreverently  of 
Archbishop  Laud.  Panton's  conduct  was  judged 
to  be  "  mutinous,  rebellious,  and  riotous," 2  his 
estate  was  confiscated,  and  he  was  banished.  A 
shameful  clause  was  inserted  in  the  sentence,  de- 
claring him  outlawed  if  he  should  venture  to 
return  to  Virginia,  and  authorizing  anybody  to 
kill  him  at  sight;  but  Harvey  afterward  tried 

1  The  interval  was  from  April  28,  1635,  to  January  18,  1637. 

2  Neill,  Virginia  Carolorum,  p.  143. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  299 

to  disown  this  clause,  saying  that  it  had  been 
wickedly  interpolated  by  the  vindictive  Kemp. 

But  Harvey's  new  lease  of  power  was  brief. 
Enemies  to  the  throne  were  getting  too  numerous 
for  comfort,  and  we  may  well  believe  that  Charles, 
having  once  vindicated  his  royal  dignity  in  the 
matter,  was  quite  ready  to  yield.  The  statements 
of  the  councillors  under  examination  in  London 
no  doubt  had  weight,  for  no  proceedings  were 
taken  against  them,  but  in  1639  the  king 
removed  Harvey,  and  sent  the  excellent 
Sir  Francis  Wyatt  once  more  to  govern  Virginia. 
Harvey's  numerous  victims  forthwith  overwhelmed 
him  with  law  -  suits,  his  ill  -  gotten  wealth  was 
quickly  disgorged,  his  estates  were  sold  to  indem- 
nify Panton  and  others,  and  the  fallen  tyrant, 
bankrupt  and  friendless,  soon  sank  into  the  grave, 
—  such  an  instance  of  poetic  justice  as  is  seldom 
realized. 

It  was  in  December,  1637,  during  Harvey's 
second  administration,  that  the  Kent  Island  trou- 
bles were  renewed.  After  Claiborne's  victorious 
fight  at  Great  Wighcocomoco,  in  May,  1635,  he 
retained  undisturbed  possession  of  the  island,  but 
a  quarrel  was  now  brewing  between  himself  and  his 
London  partners,  Clobery  &  Company.  They  were 
dissatisfied  because  furs  did  not  come  in 

.  Evelin  sent 

quantities   sufficient  to  repay  their   ad-  to  Kent 
vances  to  Claiborne.     The  disputes  with 
the  Marylanders  had  sadly  damaged  the  business, 
and  the  partners  sent  over  George  Evelin  to  look 
after  their  interests,  and  armed  him  with  power  of 
attorney.     They  requested  Claiborne  to  turn  over 


300      OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

to  him  the  island,  with  everything  on  it,  and  to 
come  to  London  and  settle  accounts.  Claiborne 
tried  to  get  a  bond  from  Evelin  not  to  surrender 
the  island  to  Calvert,  but  that  agent  refused  to 
give  any  assurances,  except  to  express  in  strong 
language  his  belief  that  Calvert  had  no  just  claim 
to  it.  Nothing  was  left  for  Claiborne  but  to  leave 
Evelin  in  possession.  He  did  so  under  protest,  and 
in  May,  1637,  sailed  for  England,  where  Clobery 
&  Company  immediately  brought  suit  against 
him.  Evelin  then  went  to  Virginia  and  attached 
all  of  Claiborne' s  property  that  he  could  find. 
Presently,  whether  from  policy  or  from  conviction, 
he  changed  his  views  as  to  the  ownership  of  Kent 
Island  and  invited  Leonard  Calvert  to  come  and 
take  it.  After  some  hesitation,  in  December,  1637, 
Calvert  occupied  the  premises  with  forty  or  fifty 
armed  men  and  appointed  Evelin  commandant  of 
the  island.  Forthwith  so  many  people 

Kent  Island  J     f      r 

seized  by       were  arrested  tor  debts  owed  to  Ciobery 

Calvert.  .  .  , 

&  Company  that  an  insurrection  ensued, 
and  in  February,  1638,  Calvert  had  to  come  over 
again  and  enforce  his  authority.  Among  his  pris- 
oners taken  in  December  was  Thomas  Smith,  the 
victor  in  the  fight  at  Great  Wighcocomoco,  who 
was  now  tried  for  piracy  and  hanged,  while  the 
Maryland  assembly  passed  a  bill  of  attainder 
against  Claiborne,  and  all  his  accessible  property 
was  seized  for  the  benefit  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
treasury. 

Soon  afterward  the  final  and  crushing  blow  was 
dealt  in  London.  A  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
the  Plantations  had  lately  been  created  there,  a 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  301 

germ  that  in  later  years  was  to  develop  into  the 
well-known  body  commonly  called  the  Lords  of 
Trade.  To  this  board  the  dispute  over  D^g^ 
Kent  Island  had  been  referred,  and  the  ^™" 
decision  was  rendered  in  April,  1638.  In  Claibome- 
the  decision  the  claims  of  Virginia  were  ignored, 
and  the  matter  was  treated  like  a  personal  dispute 
between  Claibome  and  Lord  Baltimore.  The  lat- 
ter had  a  grant  of  sovereignty  under  the  seal  of 
England,  the  former  had  merely  a  trading  license 
under  the  seal  of  Scotland,  and  this  could  not  be 
pleaded  in  bar  of  the  greater  claim.  Kent  Island 
was  thus  adjudged  to  Lord  Baltimore.  Crestfallen 
but  not  yet  conquered,  the  sturdy  Claibome  re- 
turned to  Virginia  to  await  the  turn  of  Fortune's 
wheel. 

In  curious  ways  the  march  of  events  was  tend- 
ing in  Claiborne's  favour.  At  first  sight  there  is 
no  obvious  connection  between  questions  of  reli- 
gion and  the  ownership  of  a  small  wooded  island, 
but  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  kind  of  quar- 
rel to  which  the  Evil  One  has  not  contrived  to 
give  a  religious  colouring.  By  the  year 
1638  the  population  of  Virginia  had  come 
to  contain  more  than  1,000  Puritans,  or  about 
seven  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  They  had  begun 
coming  to  Virginia  in  1611  with  Sir  Thomas 
Dale,  whose  friend,  the  Rev.  Alexander  Whitaker, 
the  famous  "  Apostle  of  Virginia,"  was  a  staunch 
Puritan,  son  of  an  eminent  Puritan  divine  who 
was  Master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge. 
The  general  reader,  who  thinks  of  Whitaker  cor- 
rectly as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England, 


302     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS, 

must  not  forget  that  in  1611  the  Puritans  had  not 
separated  from  the  Established  Church,  but  were 
striving  to  reform  it  from  within.  As  yet  there 
were  few  Separatists,  save  the  Pilgrims  who  had 
fled  to  Holland  three  years  before.  The  first  con- 
siderable separation  of  Puritans  occurred  when  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  founded  in  1629. 
The  great  gulf  between  Puritans  and  Churchmen 
was  dug  by  the  Civil  War,  and  the  earliest  date 
when  it  becomes  strictly  proper  to  speak  of  "  Dis- 
senters "  is  1662,  when  the  first  parliament  of 
Charles  II.  passed  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  In  the 
earliest  days  of  Virginia,  Puritan  Churchmen  were 
common  there.  When  in  1617  the  good  Whitaker 
was  drowned  in  James  River,  he  was  succeeded  by 
George  Keith,  who  was  also  a  Puritan.1  Under 
the  administration  of  Sandys  and  Southampton 
many  came.  Their  chief  settlements  were  south 
of  James  River,  at  first  in  Isle  of  Wight  County 
and  afterwards  in  Nansemond.  Among  their  prin- 
cipal leaders  were  Richard  Bennett,  son  of  a 
wealthy  London  merchant  and  afterwards  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  and  Daniel  Gookin,  noted  for 
his  bravery  in  the  Indian  massacre  of  1622. 

An  act  of  the  assembly  in  1631  prescribed  "that 
there  be  a  uniformity  throughout  this  colony  both 

1  In  the  famous  picture  of  the  baptism  of  Pocahontas,  in  the 
rotunda  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  Whitaker,  as  an  Episcopal 
clergyman,  is  depicted  as  clothed  in  a  surplice.  A  letter  of 
Whitaker's,  of  June,  1614,  tells  us  that  no  surplices  were  used  in 
Virginia ;  see  Purchas  His  Pilgrimes,  iv.  1771.  Surplices  began 
to  be  used  there  about  1724  (see  Hugh  Jones,  Present  State  of 
Virginia,  1724,  p.  69),  and  did  not  come  into  general  use  till  the 
nineteenth  century  (Latane",  Early  Relations,  etc.  p.  64). 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  303 

in  substance  and  circumstances  to  the  canons  and 
constitution  of  the  Church  of  England." 
This  legislation  probably  reveals  the  formity, 
hand  of  William  Laud,  who  had  three 
years  before  become  bishop  of  London ;  and  it 
may  be  taken  to  indicate  that  a  large  majority  of 
Virginians  had  come  to  disapprove  of  Puritanism. 
Probably  the  act  was  not  vigorously  enforced,  for 
Governor  Harvey  seems  to  have  looked  with  fa- 
vour upon  Puritans,  but  it  may  have  caused  some 
of  their  pastors  to  quit  the  colony.  In  1641  an 
appeal  for  more  ministers  was  sent  to  Boston,  and 
in  response  three  clergymen  —  William  Thompson 
of  Braintree,  John  Knowles  of  Watertown,  and 
Thomas  James  of  New  Haven  —  sailed 
from  Narragansett  Bay  in  December, 
1642.  Their  little  ship  was  wrecked  at  lan<L 
Hell  Gate  and  their  welcome  from  the  Dutch  at 
Manhattan  was  but  surly  ;  nevertheless  they  were 
able  to  procure  a  new  ship,  and  so,  after  a  wintry 
voyage  of  eleven  weeks,  arrived  in  James  River.1 
They  brought  excellent  letters  of  recommendation 
from  Governor  Winthrop  to  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, but  might  as  well  have  thrown  them  into  the 
fire,  for  the  new  governor  of  Virginia,  who  arrived 
in  1642,  was  the  famous  Sir  William  Berkeley,  a 
Cavalier  of  Cavaliers,  a  firm  believer  in  the  meth- 
ods of  Strafford  and  Laud,  an  implacable  foe  of 
Puritanism  and  all  its  advocates.  At  the  next 
meeting  of  the  assembly,  in  March,  1643,  the  fol- 
lowing act  was  passed  :  "  For  the  preservation  of 

1  Randall,  "  A  Puritan  Colony  in  Maryland,"  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Studies,  iv. 


304     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

the  purity  of  doctrine  and  unity  of  the  Church,  it 
is  enacted  that  all  ministers  whatsoever, 

New  Act  of  ,.,,,,  .  ,        .          ,  , 

Uniformity,    which  shall  reside  in  the  colony,  are  to 

1G43.  , 

be  conformed  to  the  orders  and  constitu- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England,  and  not  otherwise 
to  be  admitted  to  teach  or  preach  publicly  or  pri- 
vately, and  that  the  Governor  and  Council  do  take 
care  that  all  non-conformists,  upon  notice  of  them, 
shall  be  compelled  to  depart  the  colony  with  all 
convenience."  l 

Armed  with  this  fulmination,  Berkeley  was  not 

long  in  getting  rid  of  the  parsons  whom  Winthrop 

had  commended  to  his  hospitality.     Knowles  and 

James  went  in  April,  after  some  weeks 

Expulsion  of  * 

the  minis-  or  incessant  and  successful  preaching, 
but  Thompson,  "  a  man  of  tall  and 
comely  presence  "  as  we  are  told,  stayed  through 
the  summer  and  made  many  converts,  among  them 
the  wayward  son  of  Daniel  Gookin,  a  junior  Dan- 
iel whose  conversion  was  from  worldliness  or  per- 
haps devilry  rather  than  from  prelacy.  This 
brand  snatched  from  the  burning  by  Thompson 
went  to  Massachusetts,  where  for  many  years  he 
was  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  and  won 
fame  by  his  character  and  writings.  Thompson's 
work  in  Virginia  is  thus  commemorated  by  Cotton 
Mather :  — 

"  A  constellation  of  great  converts  there 
Shone  round  him,  and  his  heavenly  glory  were. 
Gookin  was  one  of  them  ;  by  Thompson's  pains 
Christ  and  New  England  a  dear  Gookin  gains." 

The  expulsion  of  the  Boston  ministers  was  the 
1  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  i.  277. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  305 

beginning  of  a  systematic  harassing  of  the  Puri- 
tans in  Virginia.  It  was  strangely  affected  by  the 
massacre  perpetrated  by  the  Indians  in  the  spring 
of  1644.1  We  seem  carried  back  to  the 

Indian  maa- 

times  of  John  Smith  when  we  encounter  «»cre  of 
once  more  the  grim  figure  of  Opekan- 
kano  alive  and  on  the  war-path.  We  have  no 
need,  however,  with  some  thoughtless  writers,  to 
call  him  a  hundred  years  old.  It  was  only  thirty- 
six  years  since  Smith's  capture  by  the  Indians, 
although  so  much  history  had  been  made  that  the 
interval  seems  much  longer.  Though  a  wrinkled 
and  grizzled  warrior,  Opekankano  need  not  have 
been  more  than  sixty  or  seventy  when  he  wreaked 
upon  the  white  men  his  second  massacre,  on  the 
eve  of  Good  Friday,  1644.  The  victims  numbered 
about  300,  but  the  Indians  were  quickly  put  down 
by  Berkeley,  and  a  new  treaty  confined  them  to  the 
north  of  York  River  ;  any  Indian  venturing  across 
that  boundary,  except  as  an  envoy  duly  marked 
with  a  badge,  was  liable  to  be  shot  at  sight.  Ope- 
kankano was  taken  captive  and  carried  on  a  litter 
to  Jamestown,  whence  Berkeley  intended  to  send 
him  to  London  as  a  trophy  and  spectacle,  but 
before  sailing  time  the  old  chief  was  ignobly  mur- 
dered by  one  of  his  guards.  It  was  the  end  of  the 
Powhatan  confederacy. 

Some  worthy  people  interpreted  this  massacre 
as  a  judgment  of  Heaven  upon  the  kingdom  of 

1  Hildreth  (Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  i.  340)  says  that  the  Indians 
"  were  encouraged  by  signs  of  discord  among  the  English,  having 
seen  a  fight  in  James  River  between  a  London  ship  for  the  Par- 
liament and  a  Bristol  ship  for  the  king." 


306     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

Virginia  for  the  sin  of  harbouring  Puritans ;  rather 

a  tardy  judgment,  one  would  say,  coming  a  year 

after   the   persecution   of   such   heretics 

Conflicting  l 

views  of        had    begun    in    earnest.      In    Governor 

theodicy.  °  .     . 

Winthrops  opinion,1  on  the  contrary, 
the  sin  which  received  such  grewsome  punishment 
was  the  expulsion  of  the  Boston  ministers,  with 
other  acts  of  persecution  that  followed.  Rev. 
Thomas  Harrison,  the  bigoted  Berkeley's  bigoted 
chaplain,  saw  the  finger  of  God  in  the  massacre, 
repented  of  his  own  share  in  the  work  of  persecu- 
tion, and  upbraided  the  governor,  who  forthwith 
dismissed  him.  Then  Harrison  turned  Puritan 
and  went  to  preaching  at  Nansemond,  in  flat  defi- 
ance of  Berkeley,  who  ordered  and  threatened  and 
swore  till  he  was  out  of  breath,  when  suddenly 
business  called  him  over  to  England. 

It  was  the  year  of  Marston  Moor,  an  inauspi- 
cious year  for  Cavaliers,  but  a  hopeful  time  for 
that  patient  waiter,  William  Claiborne.  The  gov- 
ernor of  Maryland,  as  well  as  the  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, had  gone  to  England  on  business,  and  while 
the  cats  were  away  the  mice  did  play.  The  king 
ordered  that  any  Parliament  ships  that  might  be 
invasion  of  tarrying  in  Maryland  waters  should 
ciaiborne by  forthwith  be  seized.  When  this  order 
and  ingie.  wag  received  at  St.  Mary's,  the  deputy- 
governor,  Giles  Brent,  felt  bound  to  obey  it,  and 
as  there  seemed  to  be  no  ships  accessible  that  had 
been  commissioned  by  Parliament,  he  seized  the 
ship  of  one  Richard  Ingle,  a  tobacco  trader  who 
was  known  to  be  a  Puritan  and  strongly  suspected 

1  Winthrop's  Journal,  ii.  164. 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  307 

of  being  a  pirate.  This  incident  caused  some  ex- 
citement and  afforded  the  watchful  Claiborne  his 
opportunity  of  revenge.  He  made  visits  to  Kent 
Island  and  tried  to  dispel  the  doubts  of  the  inhab- 
itants by  assuring  them  that  he  had  a  commission 
from  the  king.1  He  may  have  meant  by  this  some 
paper  given  him  by  Charles  I.  before  the  adverse 
decision  of  1638  and  held  as  still  valid  by  some 
private  logic  of  his  own.  When  Governor  Calvert 
returned  from  England  in  the  autumn  of  1644 
he  learned  that  Claiborne  was  preparing  to  invade 
his  dominions,  along  with  Ingle,  who  had  brought 
upon  the  scene  another  ship  well  manned  and 
heavily  armed.  It  was  a  curious  alliance,  inas- 
much as  Claiborne  had  professed  to  be  acting  with 
a  royal  commission,  while  Ingle  now  boasted  of  a 
commission  from  Parliament.  But  this  trifling 
flaw  in  point  of  consistency  did  not  make  the  alli- 
ance a  weak  one.  It  is  not  sure  that  the  invasion 
was  concerted  between  Claiborne  and  Ingle,  though 
doubtless  the  former  welcomed  the  aid  of  the  lat- 
ter in  reinstating  himself  in  what  he  believed  to 
be  his  right.  The  invasion  was  completely  suc- 
cessful. While  Claiborne  recovered  Kent  Island, 
Ingle  captured  St.  Mary's,  and  Leonard  Calvert 
was  fain  to  take  refuge  in  Virginia.  During  two 
years  of  anarchy  Ingle  and  his  men  roamed  about 
"  impressing  "  corn  and  tobacco,  cattle  and  house- 
hold furniture,  stuffing  ships  with  plunder  to  be 
exported  and  turned  into  hard  cash.  The  estates 
of  Cornwallis  were  especially  ill-treated,  the  In- 
dian mission  was  broken  up,  and  good  Father 
1  Browne's  Maryland,  p.  60. 


308     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

White,  loaded  with  irons,  was  sent  to  England  on 
a  trumped-up  charge  of  treason,  of  which  he  was 
promptly  acquitted.  Long  afterward  this  Clai- 
borne-Ingle  frolic  was  remembered  in  Maryland 
as  the  "  plundering  time." 

In  1645  Sir  William  Berkeley  returned  to  Vir- 
ginia, and  from  him  the  fugitive  Calvert  received 
effective  aid  and  sympathy,  so  that  late  in  1646  he 
was  able  to  invade  his  own  territory  with  a  force 
of  Virginians  and  fugitive  Marylanders. 

Expulsion  of  &  &  J 

ciaiborne      Claibome  and  Ingle  were  soon  expelled, 

and  Ingle.  °  . 

and  Leonard  Calvert's  authority  was  fully 
reestablished.  Not  long  afterward,  in  June,  1647, 
this  able  governor  died.  For  his  brother  Cecilius, 
Lord  Baltimore,  this  was  a  trying  time.  He  was  a 
royalist  at  heart,  with  little  sympathy  for  Puritans, 
but  like  many  other  Catholics  he  thought  it  wise 
to  keep  on  good  terms  with  Parliament,  in  the  hope 
of  securing  more  toleration  than  heretofore.  Such 
a  course  between  Charybdis  and  Scylla  was  at- 

tended  with  perils.  In  1648  Cecilius 
M11"  appointed  to  his  governorship  William 
as  governor.  gtone?  a  liberal-minded  Protestant  and 
supporter  of  Parliament.  Soon  after  the  king's 
beheading,  the  young  Charles  II.,  a  fugitive  in  the 
island  of  Jersey,  hearing  of  Stone's  appointment, 
interpreted  it  as  an  act  of  disloyalty  on  Baltimore's 
part,  and  so  in  a  fit  of  spite  made  out  a  grant  hand- 
ing over  the  palatinate  of  Maryland  to  Sir  Wil- 
liam Davenant,  that  poet-laureate  who  was  said  to 
resemble  Shakespeare  until  ravening  vanity  made 
him  pretend  to  be  Shakespeare's  illegitimate  son. 
Sir  William  actually  set  sail  for  America,  but  was 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  309 

overhauled  in  the  Channel  by  a  Parliament  cruiser 
and  carried  off  to  the  Tower,  where  amid  sore  dis- 
tress he  found  a  generous  protector  in  John  Milton. 
It  was  not  very  long  before  Charles  II.  came  to 
realize  his  mistake  about  Lord  Baltimore. 

In  Maryland  the  great  event  of  the  year  1649, 
which  witnessed  the  death  of  Charles  L,  was  the 
passage  on  April  21  of  the  Act  concerning  Reli- 
gion. This  famous  statute,  commonly 

.  J     TheTolera- 

known  as  the  "  loleration  Act,  was  tionActof 
drawn  up  by  Cecilius  himself,  and  passed 
the  assembly  exactly  as  it  came  from  him,  without 
amendment.  With  regard  to  Cecilius,  therefore, 
it  may  be  held  to  show,  if  not  the  ideas  which  he 
actually  entertained,  at  least  those  which  he  deemed 
it  prudent  to  embody  in  legislation.  It  is  not 
likely  to  have  surpassed  his  ideals,  but  it  may 
easily  have  fallen  somewhat  short  of  them.  The 
statute  is  so  important  that  the  pertinent  sections 
of  it  deserve  to  be  quoted  at  length  :  *  — 

"  That  whatsoever  person  or  persons  within  this 
Province  and  the  Islands  thereunto  belonging,  shall 
from  henceforth  blaspheme  God,  that  is  curse  him, 
or  deny  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  to  bee  the  sonne 
of  God,  or  shall  deny  the  holy  Trinity,  the  ffather 
sonne  and  holy  Ghost,  or  the  God  head  of  any  of 
the  said  three  persons  of  the  Trinity,  or  the  unity 
of  the  Godhead,  or  shall  use  or  utter  any  reproach- 
full  speeches,  words  or  language  concerning  the 
said  Holy  Trinity,  or  any  of  the  said  three  persons 
thereof,  shall  be  punished  with  death,  and  confisca- 

1  Proceedings  and  Acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Maryland, 
1637-1664,  pp.  244-246. 


310     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

tion  or  forfeiture  of  all  his  or  her  lands  and  goods 
to  the  Lord  Proprietary  and  his  heires. 

"  That  whatsoever  person  or  persons  shall  from 
henceforth  use  or  utter  any  reproachfull  words,  or 
speeches,  concerning  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  the 
mother  of  our  Saviour,  or  the  holy  apostles,  or  Evan- 
gelists, or  any  of  them,  shall  in  such  case  for  the 
first  offence  forfeit  to  the  said  Lord  Proprietary 
and  his  heires  the  suine  of  ffive  pound  sterling."  — 

"  That  whatsoever  person  shall  henceforth  upon 
any  occasion,  declare,  call,  or  denominate  any  per- 
son or  persons  whatsoever  inhabiting,  residing, 
traffiqueing,  trading  or  commerceing  within  this 
Province,  or  within  any  of  the  Ports,  Harbors, 
Creeks  or  Havens  to  the  same  belonging,  an  here- 
tick,  Scismatick,  Idolater,  Puritan,  Independent, 
Prespiterian,  popish  priest,  lesuit,  lesuited  papist, 
Lutheran,  Calvenist,  Anabaptist,  Brownist,  Anti- 
nomian,  Barrouist,  Roundhead,  Sep'atist,  or  any 
other  name  or  term  in  a  reproachfull  manner  relat- 
ing to  matter  of  Religion,  shall  for  every  such  of- 
fence forfeit  the  sume  of  tenne  shillings  sterling.  — 

"Whereas  the  inforcing  of  the  conscience  in 
matters  of  Religion  hath  frequently  fallen  out  to 
be  of  dangerous  consequence  in  those  common- 
wealths where  it  hath  been  practised,  and  for  the 
more  quiet  and  peaceble  government  of  this  Pro- 
vince, and  the  better  to  preserve  mutuall  Love  and 
amity  amongst  the  Inhabitants  thereof  ;  Be  it 
therefore  also  by  the  Lord  Proprietary  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  this  Assembly,  ordered  and 
enacted  (except  as  in  this  present  act  is  before  de- 
clared and  sett  forth,)  that  noe  person  or  persons 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  311 

whatsoever  within  this  Province,  or  the  Islands : 
Ports,  Harbors,  Creeks  or  havens  thereunto  be- 
longing, professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  shall 
from  henceforth  bee  any  waies  troubled,  molested 
or  discountenanced  for  or  in  respect  to  his  or  her 
religion." 

A  statute  which  threatens  Unitarians  with  death 
leaves  something  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  tolera- 
tion, even  though  it  fines  a  man  ten  shillings  for 
calling  his  neighbour  a  Calvinist  in  a  reproachful 
manner.  Nevertheless,  for  the  age  when  it  was 
enacted  this  statute  was  eminently  liberal,  and  it 
certainly  reflects  great  credit  upon  Lord  Baltimore. 
To  be  ruler  over  a  country  wherein  no  person  pro- 
fessing to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  should  be  molested 
in  the  name  of  religion  was  a  worthy  ambition, 
and  one  from  which  Baltimore's  contemporaries  in 
Massachusetts  and  elsewhere  might  have  learned 
valuable  lessons.  Such  a  policy  as  was  announced 
in  this  memorable  Toleration  Act  was  not  easy  to 
realize  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  very  year 
in  which  it  was  enacted  saw  the  grim  wolf  of  in- 
tolerance thrusting  his  paw  in  at  the  door. 

As  had  happened  before,  the  woes  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Leah  brought  woe  upon  the  Maryland  Ra- 
chel.  When  Governor  Berkeley  returned  from 
England,  he  did  more  than  swear  at  the  defiant 
chaplain  Harrison  and  the  other  preachers  of  Puri- 
tanism south  of  James  River.  He  banished  the 
pastors  and  made  life  unendurable  for  the  flocks. 
In  1648  two  of  the  Nansemond  elders,  Richard 
Bennett  and  William  Durand,  fleeing  to  Mary- 
land, were  kindly  received  by  Governor  Stone, 


312     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 


who  extended  a  most  hospitable  invitation  to  their 
people  to  leave  Virginia  and  settle  in  the 

Migration  of    *L      r.  /-,.,.,, 

Puritana        Baltimore  palatinate.     Cecilius  had  com- 

f  rni  Vir-  .  r 

plained   that  settlers  did  not  come  fast 


Maryland. 

enough  and  his  colony  was  still  too  weak, 
whereupon  Stone  had  promised  to  do  his  best  to 
bring  in  500  new  people.  His  opportunity  had 
now  come  ;  early  in  1649  an  advance  body  of  300 
Puritans  came  from  Nansemond.  The  rest  of  their 
brethren  hesitated,  fearing  lest  Catholics  might  be 
no  pleasanter  neighbours  than  the  king's  men,  but 
the  course  of  events  soon  decided  them.  The  news 
of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  was  generally  greeted 
in  Virginia  with  indignation  and  horror,  feelings 
which  were  greatly  intensified  by  the  arrival  of 
the  Cavaliers  who  in  that  year  began  to  flock  to 
Virginia.  One  ship  in  September  brought  330 
Cavaliers,  and  probably  more  than  1,000  came  in 
the  course  of  the  year.  In  October  the  assembly 
declared  that  the  beheading  of  the  king  was  an 
act  of  treason  which  nobody  in  Virginia  must  dare 
to  speak  in  defence  of  under  penalty  of  death.  It 
also  spoke  of  the  fugitive  Charles  II.  as  "  his  Ma- 
jesty that  now  is,"  and  made  it  treason  to  call  his 
authority  in  question.  These  were  the  last  straws 
upon  the  back  of  the  Puritan  camel,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  next  few  months  the  emigration  from 
Nansemond  went  on  till  as  many  as  1,000  persons 
had  gone  over  to  Maryland.  They  settled  upon 
land  belonging  to  the  Susquehannocks,  near  the 
mouth  of  a  stream  upon  which  they  bestowed  the 
name  of  the  glorious  English  river  that  falls  into 
the  sea  between  Glamorgan  and  the  Mendip  Hills, 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  313 

and  the  county  through  which  this  new-found 
Severn  flowed  they  called  Providence  from  feel- 
ings like  those  which  had  led  Roger  Williams  to 
give  that  comforting  name  to  his  settlement  on 
Narragansett  Bay.  Presently  this  new  Providence 
became  a  county  bearing  Eady  Baltimore's  name, 
Anne  Arundel,  and  the  city  which  afterwards  grew 
up  in  it  was  called  Annapolis.  This  country  had 
not  been  cleared  for  agriculture  by  the  Indians, 
like  the  region  about  St.  Mary's,  and  there  was 
some  arduous  pioneer  work  for  the  Puritan  colony. 
In  changing  the  settlement  or  plantation  of  Prov- 
idence into  the  county  of  Anne  Arundel,  some- 
thing more  than  a  question  of  naming  was  involved. 
The  affair  was  full  of  political  significance.  These 
Puritans  at  first  entertained  an  idea  that 

•  i  f  Designs  of 

they  might  be  allowed  to  torm  an  impe-  the  Purf- 
rium  in  imperio,  maintaining  a  kind  of 
Greek  autonomy  on  the  banks  of  their  Severn, 
instead  of  becoming  an  integral  portion  of  Balti- 
more's palatinate.  At  first  they  refused  to  elect 
representatives  to  the  assembly  at  St.  Mary's; 
when  presently  they  yielded  to  Governor  Stone's 
urgency  and  sent  two  representatives  in  1650,  one 
of  them  was  straightway  chosen  speaker  of  the 
House ;  nevertheless,  in  the  next  year  the  Puritans 
again  held  aloof.  They  believed  that  the  Puritan 
government  in  England  would  revoke  Lord  Balti- 
more's charter,  and  they  wished  to  remain  sepa- 
rated from  his  fortunes.  Their  willingness  to  settle 
within  his  territory  was  coupled  with  the  belief 
that  it  would  not  much  longer  be  his. 

This  belief  was  not  wholly  without  reason.     The 


314     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

war-ships  of  the  Commonwealth  were  about  to 
appear  in  Chesapeake  Bay.  Such  audacious  pro- 
ceedings as  those  of  the  Virginia  Assembly  could 
not  be  allowed  to  go  unnoticed  by  Parliament,  and 
early  in  1652  four  commissioners  were  sent  to 
receive  the  submission  of  Berkeley  and  his  colony. 
One  of  these  commissioners  was  Richard  Bennett, 
the  Puritan  elder  who  had  been  driven  from  Nanse- 
mond.  Another  was  the  irrepressible  Claiborne, 
whom  Berkeley  had  helped  drive  out  of  Maryland. 
The  Virginians  at  first  intended  to  defy  the  com- 
missioners and  resist  the  fleet,  but  after  some  par- 
ley leading  to  negotiations,  they  changed  their 
minds.  It  was  not  prudent  to  try  to  stand  up 
Submission  against  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  he,  for  his 
tocrom"13  part,  was  no  fanatic.  Virginia  must 
wel1'  submit,  but  she  might  call  it  a  voluntary 

submission.  She  might  keep  her  assembly,  by 
which  alone  could  she  be  taxed,  all  prohibitions 
upon  her  trade  should  be  repealed,  and  her  people 
might  toast  the  late  king  in  private  as  much -as 
they  pleased ;  only  no  public  stand  against  the 
Commonwealth  would  be  tolerated.  On  these 
terms  Virginia  submitted.  Sir  William  Berkeley 
resigned  the  governorship,  sold  his  brick  house  in 
Jamestown,  and  went  out  to  his  noble  plantation 
at  Green  Spring  near  by,  there  to  bide  his  time. 
For  the  next  eight  years  things  moved  along  peace- 
ably under  three  successive  Roundhead  governors, 
all  chosen  by  the  House  of  Burgesses.  The  first 
was  Richard  Bennett,  who  was  succeeded  in  March, 
1655,  by  Edward  Digges ;  and  after  a  year  Digges 
was  followed  by  that  gallant  Samuel  Mathews 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  315 

who  had  once  given  such  a  bear's  hug  to  the  arro- 
gant Sir  John  Harvey.  As  for  Claiborne,  he  was 
restored  to  his  old  office  of  secretary  of  state. 

In  Maryland  there  was  more  trouble.  As  soon 
as  Claiborne  had  disposed  of  the  elder  sister, 
Leah,  he  went  to  settle  accounts  with  the  youthful 
Rachel,  who  had  so  many  wooers.  There 

-iV    .  i     -IT-       •     •  Claiborne 

was   Episcopal   Virginia,    whose   preten-  and  Bennett 

in  Mary  laud. 

sions  to  the  fair  damsel  were  based  on  its 
old  charter;  there  was  the  Catholic  lord  propri- 
etor, to  whom  Charles  I.  had  solemnly  betrothed 
her;  there  were  the  Congregational  brethren  of 
Providence  on  the  Severn,  whose  new  pretensions 
made  light  of  these  earlier  vows  ;  but  the  master  of 
the  situation  was  Claiborne,  with  his  commission 
from  Parliament  and  his  heavily  armed  frigate. 
Mighty  little  cared  he,  says  a  contemporary  writer, 
for  religion  or  for  punctilios ;  what  he  was  after 
was  that  sweet  and  rich  country.  Claiborne's  con- 
duct, however,  did  not  quite  merit  such  a  slur.  In 
this  his  hour  of  triumph  he  behaved  without  vio- 
lence, nor  do  we  find  him  again  laying  hands  upon 
Kent  Island.  On  arriving  with  Bennett  at  St. 
Mary's,  they  demanded  that  Governor  Stone  and 
his  council  should  sign  a  covenant  "to  be  true 
and  faithful  to  the  Commonwealth  of  England  as 
it  is  now  established  without  King  or  House  of 
Lords."  To  this  demand  no  objection  was  made, 
but  the  further  demand,  that  all  writs  and  warrants 
should  run  no  longer  in  Baltimore's  name,  but  in 
the  name  of  the  Keepers  of  the  Liberty  of  Eng- 
land, was  obstinately  refused.  For  this  refusal 
Stone  was  removed  from  office,  a  provisional  gov- 


316    OLD   VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

ernment  was  established,  and  the  commissioners 
sailed  away.  This  was  in  April,  1652.  After  two 
months  of  meditation  Stone  sent  word  to  James- 
town that  he  was  willing  to  yield  in  the  matter 
of  the  writs,  whereupon  Claiborne  and  Bennett 
promptly  returned  to  St.  Mary's  and  restored  him 
to  office. 

But  those  were  shifting  times.  Within  a  year, 
in  April,  1653,  Cromwell  turned  out  of  doors  the 
Rump  Parliament,  otherwise  called  Keepers  of  the 
Liberty  of  England;  and  accordingly,  as  writs 
could  no  longer  run  in  their  name,  Stone  an- 
nounced that  he  should  issue  them,  as  formerly,  in 
the  name  of  Lord  Baltimore.  He  did  this  by 
Renewal  of  order  of  Cecilius  himself.  Trouble  arose 
the  troubles.  &i  tke  game  tjme  tjetween  Stone  and  the 

Puritans  of  Providence,  and  the  result  of  all  this 
was  the  reappearance  of  Bennett  and  Claiborne  at 
St.  Mary's,  in  July,  1654.  Again  they  deposed 
Stone  and  placed  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
a  council,  with  William  Fuller  as  its  president. 
Then  they  issued  writs  for  the  election  of  an  as- 
sembly, and  once  more  departed  for  Jamestown. 
According  to  the  tenor  of  these  writs,  no  Roman 
Catholic  could  either  be  elected  as  a  burgess  or 
vote  at  the  election  :  in  this  way  a  house  was  ob- 
tained that  was  almost  unanimously  Puritan,  and 
in  October  this  novel  assembly  so  far  forgot  its 
sense  of  the  ludicrous  as  to  pass  a  new  "  Toleration 
Act"  securing  to  all  persons  freedom  of  con- 
science, provided  such  liberty  were  not  extended 
to  "  popery,  prelacy,  or  licentiousness  of  opinion." 
In  short,  these  liberal  Puritans  were  ready  to  tol« 


LEAH  AND  RACHEL.  317 

erate   everybody  except  Catholics,  Episcopalians, 
and  anybody  else  who  disagreed  with  them ! 

When  Lord  Baltimore  heard  how  Stone  had 
surrendered  the  government,  he  wrote  a  letter 
chiding  him  for  it.  The  legal  authority  of  the 
commissioners,  Bennett  and  Claiborne,  had  ex- 
pired with  the  Rump  Parliament.  Cromwell  was 
now  Lord  Protector,  and  according  to  his  own 
theory  the  Protectorate  was  virtually  the  assignee 
of  the  Crown  and  successor  to  all  its  rights  and 
obligations.  Baltimore's  charter  was  therefore  as 
sound  under  the  Protectorate  as  it  had  ever  been. 
Knowing  that  Cromwell  favoured  this  view,  Cecil- 
ius  wrote  to  Stone  to  resume  the  government  and 
withstand  the  Puritans.  This  led  at  once  to  civil 
war.  Governor  Stone  gathered  a  force  of  130 
men  and  marched  against  the  settlement  Battle  of  the 
at  Providence,  flying  Baltimore's  beauti-  Severn< 
ful  flag  of  black  and  gold.  Captain  Fuller,  with 
175  men,  was  ready  for  him,  and  the  two  little 
armies  met  on  the  bank  of  the  Severn,  March  25, 
1655.  Besides  his  superiority  in  numbers,  Fuller 
was  helped  by  two  armed  merchant  ships,  the  one 
British,  the  other  from  New  England,  which  kept 
up  a  sharp  fire  from  the  river.  Stone's  men  were 
put  to  flight,  leaving  one  third  of  their  number  in 
killed  and  wounded.  One  old  Puritan  writer  tells 
us  with  keen  enjoyment  that  the  field  whence  they 
fled  was  strewn  with  their  "Papist  beads."  Among 
the  prisoners  taken  was  Stone  himself,  who  was 
badly  wounded.  Fuller  at  once  held  a  court- 
martial  at  which  Stone  and  nine  other  leading 
men  were  sentenced  to  death.  Four  were  executed, 


318     OLD  VIRGINIA  AND  HER  NEIGHBOURS. 

but  on  the  intercession  of  some  kind-hearted  women 
Stone  and  the  others  were  pardoned. 

The  supremacy  of  the  Puritans  in  Maryland 
thus  seemed  to  be  established,  but  it  was  of  short 
duration.  Some  of  the  leading  Puritans  in  Vir- 
ginia, such  as  Bennett  and  Mathews,  visited  Lon- 
don and  tried  to  get  Baltimore's  charter  annulled. 
LordBaiti-  But  their  efforts  soon  revealed  the  fact 
Stoed^y  th3^  Cromwell  was  not  on  their  side  of 
cromweii.  ^e  question?  an(j  so  they  gave  up  in  de- 
spair, and  the  quarrel  of  nearly  thirty  years'  stand- 
ing was  at  last  settled  by  a  compromise  in  1657. 
Lord  Baltimore  promised  complete  amnesty  for 
all  offences  against  his  government  from  the  very 
beginning,  and  he  gave  his  word  never  to  consent 
to  the  repeal  of  his  Toleration  Act  of  1649.  Upon 
these  terms  Virginia  withdrew  her  opposition  to 
his  charter,  and  indemnified  Claiborne  by  extensive 
land  grants  for  the  loss  of  Kent  Island.  Balti- 
more appointed  Captain  Josias  Fendall  to  be  gov- 
ernor of  Maryland  and  sent  out  his  brother  Philip 
Calvert  to  be  secretary.  The  men  of  Providence 
were  fain  to  accept  toleration  at  the  hands  of  those 
to  whom  they  had  refused  to  grant  it,  and  in 
March,  1658,  Governor  Fendall's  authority  was 
acknowledged  throughout  the  palatinate.  Peace 
reigned  on  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  the 
claims  of  Leah  and  Rachel  were  adjusted,  and  the 
fair  sisters  quarrelled  no  more. 


Cfir  fitoersi&r 


CAMBRIDGE,   MASSACHUSETTS,  U.  S.  A, 

KLECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED  BY 

H.  O.  HOUGHTON  AND  CO. 


315 


L/'M 


